


The Art of Wasting Time

by motherofmercury



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, House unity, Lesbians, Love is in the Air, M/M, Next Generation, Quidditch, Romance, Sibling Love, Very minimal angst, all houses midnight quidditch, be what you want not what your parents want, cheesy romance meeting, children are strangely wise, cute Teddy, florist teddy, gays, heteros, in love teddy, oc meets the potters for christmas, oc thinks she should be an auror, parental pressure, so much love everywhere, soft teddy, teddy can't grow flowers so he gets his girlfriend to help him, teddy uses his metamorphagus powers to impersonate mcgonagall, they literally bang into each other, wants to be an auror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-26 16:18:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 25,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13861464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/motherofmercury/pseuds/motherofmercury
Summary: All Lila wants in the world is to please her parents by becoming an Auror, but when she walks into a particular clumsy Hufflepuff with bubblegum-blue hair, she learns that some people are more persistent than what's good for them, and, perhaps, pleasing her parents isn't the most important thing in the world, after all.





	1. the art of unfortunate collisions

As far as Lila knew, the corridor outside the library was perfectly empty; after all, who gets up 7am to go to the library?  She hurried down it, arms aching with months’ worth of ancient tomes for anyone other than a Ravenclaw.  Unfortunately, she was abruptly throw to the floor, tomes cascading around her as she collided with someone tall and solid, causing her to thunk heavily onto the hard stone floor.  Lila ignore the absolute  _idiot_ who had been running down the corridor and squeezed her eyes shut tight for a moment, resigning herself to the lecture she’d receive from Madam Pince on the correct treatment of ancient library books while she tried to still her panicky heart.  Once Lila felt sufficiently calm she opened her eyes and looked up at the stupid boy with resentful brown eyes through a tangled of above-the-shoulder, pale lilac hair.

         “I am so sorry,” the boy said quickly, yellow and black tie askew, hair quickly becoming the scarlet of his face, “let me help!” he bent and picked up Lila’s books as she sat on the floor, frowning up at him. 

         Alarm bells were screeching in Lila’s head – this situation was the epitome of clichéd and cheesily romantic muggle moments – plus this boy’s hair had just changed colour to match his face.  How had she not known there was a metamorphagus at this school? 

         The boy reached out a hand to help her up, precariously balancing the books on one arm.

         “No, I’m fine. Please do  _not_  drop those books.” Lila stood, ignoring his proffered hand, brushed down her skirt and said, “I really can carry them myself, but thanks.  She tried to take the books back from the boy, but he wouldn’t let go.

         “I’ll carry them back to-” his eyes flickered down to her blue and bronze tie, “Ravenclaw Tower for you. It’s the least I can do after knocking you over.”  He stacked the books up on his left arm again and stuck out his right hand for her to shake. “I’m Teddy, by the way, Teddy Lupin.”

         “Lila.” She said curtly, turning and walking towards Ravenclaw Tower.  Lila didn’t have time for this, she didn’t have time to take the long way to Ravenclaw Tower, and she certainly didn’t have time for boys.  She had to get her Outstanding’s, no matter the blow her love life took.

         “Lila, is that short for something?” Teddy asked as he caught up to her, “lilac, perhaps?” he grinned and nodded at her hair.

         “No, actually Delilah.”

         “Delilah’s a pretty name.”

         “But a horrible person.”

         “Is she?”

         Lila didn’t bother replying, she didn’t have time to give this boy a religious lesson on Samson and Delilah, so she just sped up in the hopes that they’d get to the Tower with enough time for her to get back to History of Magic promptly.

         “So, Delilah, what do you like to do?” He grinned at her again.

         And again, Lila didn’t look at him.  “I like to read.”

         He laughed as they rounded a corner and started up a spiralling flight of stairs.  “I can see that.  Anything else?”

         Lila didn’t answer for a moment as they rounded the final corner and came to a halt outside the door with the bronze eagle knocker, “and I like to do my homework, and get to class on time.”  With that, she grabbed the books out of his arms, knocked on the door, quickly answered the riddle and let the door close behind her, leaving Teddy Lupin along, and on the other side.  She was a tiny bit relieved she hadn’t had to carry the tomes up all those stairs, but she would never admit that.  Lila ran across the deserted common room and pounded up the stairs to her dorm.  Dumping the books on her bed she grabbed her bag and shoved a spare quill into in before shuffling through some papers on her bedside table, muttering swearwords under her breath.

         “Where did I put it?” she threw the papers down and spun around frantically, heart pounding and hands getting clammy. 

        Finally, she glanced around one more time, grabbed her back, and sprinted down the stairs and out of the common room.  Lila skidded to a halt in the middle of a seemingly empty corridor and pulled out her want, counting seven stones up from that weird scratch on the floor that looks like Virgo, and three stones to the left.  She tapped that stone with her wand and a section of the wall slid back and sideway to reveal a passage.  She slipped in and the wall closed behind her, leaving her in a darkness so profound, it seemed to press in on her senses.

        “Lumos.” Lila’s wand started to glow a soft yellow. 

        A Ravenclaw a few years back had enchanted the wall to reveal this passage, allowing them to get halfway across the castle much faster than navigating the corridors and moving staircases as well as being constantly on the lookout for Peeves the poltergeist.  Lila knew that architecturally, this corridor was impossible – it didn’t slope down nearly enough to go all the way down the Tower – but she’d given up questioning what the castle was capable of when she’d stumbled across the Room of Requirement on her way to the bathroom.  These passages were really quite terrifying, and Lila preferred not to use them if she could help it, but she was late for class, so this was an emergency.  Coming towards the end of the passage, Lila flicked a small wooden lever and the solid wall in front of her slid aside so she could get out.  She quickly whispered “Nox,” and ran to the door just down the corridor.  Lila took a deep breath and smoothed down her wild hair and pushed open the door.

        Professor Binns stopped his droning monologue and looked at her as she took her seat at the front of the class.  “You’re late, Carne,” he sounded almost surprised.

        “I am sorry, Professor, it won’t happen again.” She pulled out her textbook as her friend nudged her and smiled reassuringly.

        “I should hope not.” Professor Binns continued his drone and the raven-haired beauty next to Lila leaned over a whispered in her ear.

        “You’re  _never_ late, what happened?”

        “Some stupid boy knocked me over then insisted on carrying my books to the Tower, but never mind that, Ciara, where did I put my essay last night?”

        “Relax, Lila,” Ciara reached over and gave Lila’s hand a squeeze, “when you didn’t show up I took it with me to class.  Don’t worry, I handed it in for you.”

        “Ciara, you’re a lifesaver!”

        “I know,” she grinned and swung her chair back on the hind legs.  Suddenly she thumped back onto four legs and leaned towards Lila.  “Wait, so a  _boy_ knocked you over and then carried your books for you?” She barely supressed a squeal of delight, “Lila, that’s so  _romantic!_  What’s his name? Is he cute?”

        “Shush, Ciara, I can’t miss more of this class,” Lila was frantically trying to write down everything Professor Binns said.

        “Lila, you don’t need O’s in History of Magic to be an Auror, it’s literally the most useless class.”

        Lila just glared at her friend and Ciara rolled her eyes.  “You know what my parents are like.”

        “Fine, but I’ll get every detail from you later.”

        “Only if you shut up now.”

        “Harrmph.” Ciara slumped back in her seat and started fiddling with her want. “I hope he was cute.”

 

At dinner Ciara sat next to Lila, flicking her dark hair over her shoulder and eyeing the Hufflepuff table across the hall. 

         “You said he was Hufflepuff, right?”

         “Ciara, don’t  _stare!_ ”

         “Lila, he  _is_  cute, the one with the blue hair?” she ignored Lila’s indignation.

         “I am not going to encourage him, I have no room in my life for romance, Ciara, and you know that! Stop staring!” Lila’s hands were starting to sweat, making it harder to hold her fork.

         “Alright, alright! But he’s definitely worth a Troll or two.”

         Lila dropped her fork with a clatter and stood up from the table, leaving Ciara in the Great Hall to make eyes at the Hufflepuff boy, but Lila had better things to do.

         Before she came into view of the door with eagle knocker, Lila could hear young, loud voices.  She perked up at the idea of a debate over the riddle, they’d been too easy the last few weeks.

         “I’m telling you, the fire came first!”

         “No, Timmy, my brother told me about these questions, it’s a paradox-”

         “No,  _Michael,_  scientifically, the fire CAME FIRST!”

         Lila walked up and smiled at the little first years, “What’s the riddle?”

         “Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?” the boy called Michael turned to her.

         “It is supposed to be ‘a circle has no beginning’, but why do you say it’s fire?” Lila asked.

         “Because fire is a chemical reaction and, as far as I know, phoenixes are fiery birds that probably evolved like everything else on this planet did. We’re a tiny speck on the cosmic calendar, Michael, so unless you’re telling me that phoenixes are actually aliens, you-”

         “Timmy…” Michael tried.

         “-have to admit – fire came first – there are trillions of stars that have burned and died billions of years before our sun was even born. This is just like that chicken and the egg question, it sounds like a paradox, but actually it’s not, because the egg existed way before the bird we know as a chicken evolved-”

         “Timmy!”

         “What?”

         “You… The door opened.”

         “Finally, someone who recognises science!”

         Lila laughed and turned to Timmy, “Muggleborn, I’m guessing? With scientists for parents?”

         “Mhmm, Dad’s an astrophysicist and Mum’s a biologist.” Timmy grinned at her, white-blonde hair flopping in his face.

         “An astrophysicist? No way! Both my parents work in food importation, it’s possibly the most boring job you can imagine.” Lila grinned back as the three of them walked into the common room.  “I’m Lila, by the way.”

         “Michael,” the other boy said, “and that’s Timmy.”

         “I gathered, what with all the yelling.” Lila laughed again.

         Timmy flushed and looked like he was trying to dissolve. “Sorry about that.”

         “No, it’s absolutely fine, this is Ravenclaw, after all, and we all love a good debate.” Lila started to turn away from them and head up to her dorm, but something made her stop and turn back towards them.  “If you ever need any help, don’t be afraid to ask.”

         She didn’t know what made her say it, but she wanted to help these tiny little firsties if she could, and maybe help them avoid the unfortunate collisions that she had not.


	2. the art of being polite

Lila was in the library again, of course.  She ran her hand along one shelf, looking for a particular book on some stupid Generic Goblin War so that she could finish the millionth essay set by Professor Binns that week.  Finally, she saw a book at seemed to be along the right lines, so she pulled the book off the shelf and through the whole came face to face with a surprised looking boy with bubblegum blue hair.

                “Delilah!”

                “It’s Lila,” she put the book back into the gap and walked towards the end of the aisle.

                Rounding the corner was Teddy, and before she could turn and run the other way he had grabbed her wrist and pulled her too close.  Lila could feel the sweat forming in her palms, she didn’t have time for this.

                “No, wait, please,” he breathed, Lila’s wrist still clasped lightly in his hand.  “W-will you go to Hogsmeade with me on Saturday?”

                Lila looked at him incredulously and pulled her arm back sharply, “like… a date?”

                “Yes?” Teddy let go of her and looked down, crossing his arms defensively, his flush extending a vivid red up his neck and across his face and into the roots of his bright hair.

                “I-” Lila just stood there for a moment, not knowing what to say. “I- I’ll think about it,” she turned and hurried out of the library, completely forgetting about that Generic Goblin War.

 

                The corridors were crowded with students of all years as Lila’s bag thumped against her thigh in time with her steps.  The loud drone of hundreds of people chattering and laughing as they made their way to their third (in most cases) class of the day.  Lila herself had Potions with the Hufflepuffs and she was greatly looking forward to seeing Bree, her Hufflepuff Potions partner.  Bree was an absolute Potions genius and Lila thanked her lucky stars she’d been paired with her because Potions was _not_ her strongest subject, but she needed good marks in it to become an Auror, so she had to power through. 

                Lila elbowed her way past a group of second years yelling at Peeves as he gleefully squealed and bounced off the ceiling, tormenting a small tortoiseshell cat that crouched fearfully against the wall.  She ran down a flight of stairs and entered the dungeons, pushing open the door and taking her seat near the front.  There were only a few others in the room; one Ravenclaw and a pair of Hufflepuffs.  Lila opened her bag and pulled out her wand, a quill, and an unfinished essay, setting to with a determination to finish it before Defence Against the Dark Arts later in the day.

                She barely noticed as other students trickled in, taking their seats and chattering to one another.  Soon enough, Lila’s Potions partner walked in.

                “Lila!” Bree sat down next to her, brushing strands of thick, long red hair over her shoulder. “How are you?”

                “I’m alright,” she smiled at the bubbly Hufflepuff, “you?”

                “I’m great! Amanda and Ethan Williams – you know, the twins – brought ‘round a box of chocolate chip cookies this morning so everyone in Hufflepuff could have a few! They were _delicious._ ”

                Lila laughed as Bree gushed about the gooey, still-warm cookies, praising the Williams twins’ cooking.  “I’m glad you had a good morning.”

                “All right class!” The Potions professor clapped their hands, “Today we will…”

                Lila missed the rest of the sentence, her eyes drifting across the classroom.  She snapped her eyes back to the front in horror when she realised Teddy Lupin was watching her with a sort of soft, happy expression on his face.  They had locked eyes for a second before Lila had torn her gaze away, blood creeping up her neck, flushing her and causing her hands to grow cold.  She subtly wiped them on her skirt and reached over her desk to grab the vial of Murtlap tears.

                Lila nudged Bree and discreetly asked her what they were supposed to be making.  Bree gave her a funny look and told her what the potion was and which page it was on in _Advanced Potion Making_.

                “Lila, are you feeling okay? You never miss anything in class.”

                “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” She said distractedly as she tried to peer over her shoulder to see if Teddy was still watching her and pour in the Murtlap tears at the same time.

                “What are you doing? LILA?!” Bree knocked the vial out of Lila’s hand, sending it flying across the room to clatter in front of an astonished Teddy.

                Lila watched him look down at it then she quickly turned her back on him and faced Bree who was frowning at her.

                “Okay, what’s going on? You know better than to put Murtlap tears in before the ground unicorn horn.”

                “Nothing’s going on, I’m fi-”

                “I believe you dropped this?” A soft male voice said.

                Lila clenched her teeth and turned around, a forced smile on her face.  The last thing she needed was this distraction in classes, outside of class was bad enough.  “Thank you, Teddy.” She took the vial, careful not to make skin contact because Lila knew she was sweating too much and she knew just how gross it was.

                “No problem,” he smiled at her and made his way back to his side of the classroom, manoeuvring around other Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff pairs as they consulted each other.

                “Lila, is something going on between you and Teddy?” Bree asked gently, dropping the ground unicorn horn into the cauldron.

                “N-”

                “Don’t even _think_ about saying no again, because I know you are lying to me.” She glared at Lila ferociously.

                Lila sighed and plopped down into her chair.  “Bree, you know how much becoming and Auror means to me?”

                “Of course.”

                “Well, Teddy is ruining my chances.”

                “What, how? He’s so lovely, though-”

                “He asked me on a date.”

                “WHAT? Say yes, oh my God, Lila! He’s like the hottest boy in our year!”

                “Yeeaaahhh, but I don’t have _time_ for a relationship, Bree, he’ll just distract me and I won’t get the marks I need.”

                “Honey, I’m sure you could work something out with him and make sure he knows you actually do your homework,” Bree glanced over at Teddy who was still watching Lila, leaving the Potion completely to his partner.  “He likes you a lot.” Bree said bluntly, “do you like him?”

                Lila didn’t reply, she just put her head in her hands and slumped over her desk.

                “What’s that supposed to mean?” Bree laughed, pouring the Murtlap tears into the potion.

                “I don’t knoooowwwwww,” Lila groaned, “what do I do?”

                Bree brushed Lila’s bright hair back from her face and put her fingers under Lila’s chin, tilting her head back, forcing her to look up at the Hufflepuff.  “I think you should give it a go, Lila.  What harm can it really do?”

                “A lot.”

                “Give it a go. You can always break up with him if you can’t handle it, and remember you can always talk to me if you need to.” Bree smiled at her and tucked a strand of lilac hair behind Lila’s ear.  “I believe in you.”

                Lila smiled up at Bree gratefully and said, “Okay, I’ll give a try.”

                Bree grinned and looked over at Teddy, sending him a wink as Lila rolled her eyes.


	3. the art of avoiding detention

“I can’t believe I didn’t hear what the homework assignment was for Potions!” Lila grumbled as she shoved a sandwich into her mouth.  Ciara and Lila were sitting with Jimmy at the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall for lunch.

         “Why don’t you just ask Bree?” Jimmy rolled his eyes at Lila.

         Lila looked over at the Hufflepuff table, “Because I haven’t seen her since Potions? Why else?”

         “You should’ve asked the professor, Lila.” Ciara smiled at her friend sympathetically before spearing a sausage with her fork.

         “But then he would know I wasn’t listening,” she pushed her plate away and thunked her head onto the table.  “I’m gonna fail if I don’t do the assignment and I need my top marks!” her muffled voice was growing hysterical.

         Jimmy put his hand on her shoulder and leaned towards her, “hey, it’s okay, Lila, Jack’s in your Potions class, right? He’s over there at the Puff table, I’ll go ask.” Jimmy stood and made his way over to the Hufflepuff table where his boyfriend sat. 

         Lila lifted her head off the table to watch the exchange and Ciara pretended to gag as Jimmy kissed Jack and sat sideways on the bench next to him.  Lila reluctantly smiled at Ciara’s face and grabbed another sandwich.

         Jimmy hurried back over and smiled at Lila, saying “Jack says the assignment is only a six inch roll of parchment on the properties of unicorn horn.”

         Lila sighed in relief and smiled at Jimmy, “Thank you.  Six inches should be easy.”

         “Pfft six inches won’t even take you five minutes, Lila.” Ciara scoffed.

         Lila rolled her eyes and Ciara and stood up, grabbing her bag, “we should be getting to Herbology, Ciara,” she ruffled Jimmy’s light brown hair and thanked him again.

         “No problem.” He grinned and waved as they left the Great Hall.

         Out in the Entrance Hall they walked towards to the main doors and then down the path to the greenhouses, following the steady trickle of other seventh year Ravenclaws and Slytherins.

         The greenhouse they were in that day was particularly humid and Ciara’s dark hair started frizzing out almost immediately.

         Professor Longbottom clapped his hands and faced the class once everyone was crowded into the middle of the room.  “Today we will be revising how to look after a  _Venomous Tentacular_ , which you should recall from last year.  If you’ve forgotten something, don’t be afraid to ask.” Professor Longbottom smiled and gestured that they should get started.  Lila and Ciara cautiously walked over to one of the crazy plants.  It waved its tentacles at them feebly and Lila felt a pang of sympathy.

         “I think this one’s ill.” Lila said, walking up to it and stroking its tentacles gently.  It curled a tentacle around Lila’s arm and nudged her gently.  “Ciara, get the fertiliser, would you?”

         Ciara sighed and plopped her bag under the bench, walking across the room to get the fertiliser.  She came back with a bag of the stuff and asked, “How much?”

         “Just start with a little bit and see how it feels.” By now the Tentacular was nuzzling up to Lila, wrapping her in its tentacles in a friendly way.

         “Well that’s vague,” she started pouring a little over the soil in the Tentacular’s pot, but someone banged into her from behind, causing her to spill the entire bag into the pot.  “WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING!” Ciara yelled at the student.

         Lila’s eyes widened and she quickly disentangled herself from the plant as it started shuddering violently.  The shudders grew larger and larger until suddenly the Tentacular’s pot slid off the bench and smashed on the floor, scattering soil and fertiliser everywhere as the plant wriggled furiously on the ground.  There a few screams and shouts and Professor Longbottom came running.

         “Miss Carne, Miss Matthews! I expected more from the pair of you! I will see you both in detention in my office tonight at eight for mistreating a  _Venomous Tentacular_.” He frowned at them both and Lila looked away, face flushing and hands prickling.

         “But, Professor, that’s not fair! Someone banged into me and besides, I have a date tonight!”

         “Well I’m afraid you’ll have to cancel your date, Ciara.  I will see you in detention.  Class!” He clapped his hands again to get everyone’s attention before telling them all to start packing up and making sure their Tentacular’s were comfortable.

         Once everyone was making the quiet noises of packing up and chatting to each other, a Slytherin boy sidled up to Lila and Ciara and said, “If you really don’t want to serve that detention I know a metamorphagus who’ll serve it for you for a ‘modest fee’.”

         “How much is a ‘modest fee’?” Ciara asked curiously.

         Lila groaned and gave Ciara a gentle shove, “You can’t seriously be considering this?! You know Lupin is the only metamorphagus at Hogwarts this year! Don’t make me serve a detention with him.”

         “Lila, you know I’ve been looking forward to this date all week!”

         The Slytherin looked between them curiously.  “Would you like me to tell him you require his services?”

         “Yes.” Ciara nodded firmly.

         “No!”

         “Yes!”

         “Ciara, please.”

         “Lila, you’ll be  _fine_ , it’s not like he’ll be able to talk to you anyway.” She turned to the Slytherin and said, “Yes, please let him know.”

         Just then, Professor Longbottom called that their class was dismissed early so he could tend to the  _Venomous Tentacular_  that was still writhing on the floor by Lila and Ciara.

         As they left the greenhouses and walked back up the castle Lila mumbled; “I’m not going to get my homework done because of this detention.”

         “Start now,” was all Ciara said.

 

Lila stood outside the door of Professor Longbottom’s office, anxiously wringing her hands.  As much as she didn’t want to be distracted by Teddy Lupin, she was a little bit curious to see him change his appearance to that of her friend’s.

         Lila glanced out the window to judge how dark it was before turning to Teddy, “You should probably change now.”

         “Alright,” he smiled at her softly.

         Lila watched in fascination as Teddy’s hair sprouted and grew rapidly, darkening and curling more as it cascaded down his back.  His skin lightened a few shades and his eyes became a very dark brown as his features softened and curved into a distinctly feminine and familiar face as his figure shortened and rounded out.  She scrutinised Teddy-as-Ciara, checking that everything was exactly perfect – she didn’t really want either Teddy or Ciara to get in trouble for this – although maybe they did deserve it.

          “Ciara has a freckle there,” she touched Teddy-as-Ciara’s cheek, just above the cheekbone.

         Teddy quickly scrunched up his nose and added the freckle.

         “Perfect.” Lila whispered.

         “Have you thought about our date?”

         Teddy’s voice coming out of what looked like Ciara’s mouth startled Lila and she took a step back stuttering, “I – um I- yes, but – um?”

         Teddy-as-Ciara chuckled but quickly shut his mouth as the door to Professor Longbottom’s office opened.

        “Alright you two, come in.” Professor Longbottom ushered them into his office. 

        A blast of warm air hit them as they walked in.  Lila looked around; on one side of the small room there was a large bookshelf crammed with every kind of Herbology book you could imagine, as well as not a few muggle botany books.  His desk stood against the wall opposite the door and it had several pots stacked upon it, soil scattered across some papers, as well as any number of random tools and a pair of dragon skin gloves.  On a shelf against the wall opposite was an array of magical plants, including a freshly potted  _Venomous Tentacular_ , several of its long tentacles in little slings as it feebly waved it uninjured arms.

        Lila looked at the Tentacular with concern, she recognised that little red dot at the base of one of the tentacles.  This was the Tentacular that she and Ciara had accidentally damaged earlier in the day.

        Professor Longbottom turned to them and said, “You two are going to sit here-” he gestured to two small desks in front of his large desk, “and you are going to write some good old-fashioned lines.  ‘I will learn how to treat a  _Venomous Tentacular_  correctly’.”  He looked at Lila, and then at Teddy-as-Ciara, his eyes lingering on the metamorphagus.  Professor Longbottom sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward, saying, “Honestly, Teddy, your godfather makes that exact same expression when he thinks something is pointless.”

        Lila cringed and looked at Teddy-as-Ciara to see that he was rapidly changing back into his blue-haired self.

        “Get out of here, Teddy, you can serve your own detention with Miss Matthews tomorrow night.  Please let her know.  Miss Carne.” He gestured to the desks again.

        “Sorry Professor.” Teddy mumbled, his face beetroot, the colour creeping into the roots of his hair, turning it a purple red.  He glanced at Lila apologetically before turning and pushing open the door of the small office.  The door banged shut behind him and Lila sighed, sitting down and preparing to write her lines. 

 

Six hundred lines and half a bottle of ink later, Professor Longbottom finally let Lila go.  It was well past curfew, so he gave her a note saying she had a detention and was to be allowed back to Ravenclaw Tower without further punishment.  Lila was fairly sure Professor Longbottom had forgotten she was there for a while because he had been so engrossed in caring for the injured plants he was nursing in his office.  She really appreciated the passion Professor Longbottom had for his subject; not all teachers had that passion that made them a really great teacher.

        Lila walked incredibly fast back to her common room, ignoring the few ghosts she saw and the whispering or snoring portraits.  She hadn’t finished her Defence essay and it was due tomorrow.  Lila quickly answered the simple riddle and once she was back in the Tower she curled up on a couch in the corner with her essay – despite it already being the early hours of the morning – and she wrote until the sky was beginning to lighten in the east and her eyes were so itchy and heavy that she could hardly keep them open.  She stumbled up the stairs to her dorm and didn’t bother undressing, just flopping down onto her bed, leaving the heavy, midnight blue curtains around her bed open.


	4. the art of negotiating relief

Thankfully, Lila only had four classes the next day, but still she managed to fall asleep in just about every single one.  As she sat in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Jimmy watched her slowly writing her essay.  Just the fact that Lila was writing slowly was a cause for concern to Jimmy, because Lila was the sort of person who absorbed and then pounded out the knowledge without too much thought or effort once it was in her head.  But today Lila’s quill was scratching almost absently against the parchment, and her head was beginning to droop ever-so-slightly.

        Jimmy leaned across to her and gently nudged her in the side. “Lila, are you okay?” his pale eyebrows furrowing in concern.

        Lila jerked the tiniest bit and glanced over at Jimmy.  Jimmy was no expert on makeup, but he was sure Lila was wearing an inordinate amount of concealer to cover the huge purple bags under her eyes, but it hadn’t really worked. 

        “Huh? Yeah! Yeah, I’m fine.”

        Jimmy gave her a dubious look but returned to his essay.

        After DADA Lila and Jimmy walked back to Ravenclaw Tower to do some homework before dinner.  When the eagle knocker asked his riddle of the two Ravenclaws, Lila just stared at the door blankly and Jimmy wasn’t sure if she’d even heard the riddle.  He sighed and gave the answer, gently propelling Lila through the door with a hand on her back.

        “Lila, I really think you should have a nap and do your homework later.”

        “No! I don’t have time for a nap!”

        “Even just half an hour –”

        “I can’t Jimmy, I have four essays and a star chart to write before next week!”

        “Lila,” Jimmy said softly, “sleep is important…”

        “I can’t Jimmy, don’t you see?!” She was yelling now, attracting many glares from irritated Ravenclaws who were studying peacefully in the book-filled common room.  “If I don’t do this homework my grades will start to slip and then my parents will find out and stop me doing everything I love so I can focus on school Jimmy I can’t nap I need to write these essays!”

        Jimmy could tell that Lila was panicking; her breaths were rapid and shallow and tears had started trickling down her face and she was paying absolutely no attention to the other students in the common room.  Jimmy took Lila by the elbow and steered her across the room and up the stairs to her dorm.  “Shh, breathe Lila, it’s okay, you have time to write your essays. Breathe.”  Once they were in Lila’s deserted dorm, Jimmy sat her down on the closest bed and pulled some tissues out of his bag.  “Here.”

        Lila breathed in and out raggedly, but she took the tissues gratefully and blew her nose loudly with a violent gurgle.

        “Here, lie down for a bit.” Jimmy plumped up the pillows and pulled back the covers so Lila could get in easier after pulling off her shoes.  Jimmy tucked her in gently and stroked her hair as she cried.  “I’ll come get you before dinner and then we can do our homework afterwards, yes?”

        “Okay.” Lila sniffed.  Jimmy stood up to leave but Lila stuck out a hand and grabbed his wrist loosely.  “Can you stay?”

        Jimmy’s expression melted and he sat back down on the bed, stroking Lila’s hair like his mother used to do to him when he was little and couldn’t fall asleep.

        “Thank you.” Lila whispered.

        Jimmy didn’t reply.  Lila was so tired that it didn’t take her long at all to fall asleep.  Jimmy stood up carefully when her breathing was slow and even, and he left the dorm, walking down the stairs back to the common room.  He wasn’t sure if that had been Lila’s bed, but he hoped her dorm mates wouldn’t mind.  Sighing, Jimmy left the common room and headed down several flights of stairs and turned many corners until he was standing before a large pile of barrels, just down the corridor from the portrait that hid the kitchens.  He needed to talk to Jack.  Desperately.

        His wand was in the pocket of his robes, so he pulled it out and carefully tapped the barrel Jack had shown him.

_Tap-tap, tap-tap-tap_

        The syllables of Helga Hufflepuff.  The barrels swung open like a door, allowing Jimmy to walk straight into the Hufflepuff common room.  He smiled.  The evening sun was streaming in through one of the high windows, bathing the room in a golden glow, and there were potted plants and hanging plants all around the room; on shelves, on the floor, on the ceiling.  It was the herbologists’ paradise, not that Jimmy was a herbologist, but he felt he had been at least fairly decent at the subject when he’d taken it. 

        There were a few students dotted around the room in small groups, and a couple looked up as he walked in, not at all worried that there was a Ravenclaw in their common room.

        “Hey, Jimmy!” One boy grinned over at him, “what brings you here?”

        “Max,” Jimmy smiled, “Is Jack around?”

        “He was in his dorm last I knew,” a small girl with white blonde hair piped up.

        “Sweet, thanks, Alicia.” Jimmy turned towards the right and ran along the small passage that led to one section of the Hufflepuff dorms.  He walked past the first two doors and stopped at the third.  He knocked gently.  A muffled voice called for him to come in, so he pushed the door open to find Jack leaning over his trunk, shirtless.

        As Jack stood up, Jimmy ran a hand through his hair as he took a moment to admire His Muscular Boyfriend, The Quidditch Player.  Jimmy himself had practically no muscle; he always thought it a wonder that Jack had ever looked at him twice.

        Jack grinned at Jimmy and came over to him, pulling the slightly shorter boy against him.  “Hey,” he said a little huskily.  They hadn’t seen each other all day.

        “Hey.” Jimmy smiled up at the golden-haired boy that was leaning in to kiss him.  Jimmy revelled in the sweet tang of Jack’s lips for a moment before pulling away and allowing the frown to cloud his features again.

        “Hey, why the frown? What’s wrong?” Jack slid his hands down Jimmy’s arms and entwined their fingers together, pulling him over to the large, lovely yellow armchair in the corner of the dorm room.  Jack sat and pulled Jimmy down next to him, fingers still meshed.

        They sat squished together and Jimmy sighed.  “It’s Lila. She’s really struggling to stay on top of everything.”

        “Aaannddd?” Jack questioned, laying his head on Jimmy’s shoulder, allowing his to play with his golden-blonde hair.

        “I want you to talk to Teddy.”

        Jack sat up straight again and looked at Jimmy questioningly. “And say what exactly? ‘Hey mate, could you stop hitting on my boyfriend’s Ravenclaw friend because you’re distracting her from schoolwork and she’s not coping’?”

        “If you think that would work?” Jimmy looked at Jack hopefully.

        “Jimmy, Teddy’s a good guy, but Lila’s a pretty, intelligent, and interesting girl, he’s not going to give up easily.”

                “If I wasn’t so sure you’re gay I would almost be jealous.”

        “Almost?” Jack smirked.

        Jimmy smiled slightly but soon sighed again and wriggled down, resting his head on Jack’s bare chest so he could hear his steady heartbeat.  Jack wrapped his strong arms around his as Jimmy said, “Please can you just try? He really only needs to stop until the holidays…”

        “Alright,” Jack sighed, “but only ‘cause I love you.” He nuzzled into Jimmy’s hair and made snorting noises like a horse, making Jimmy laugh and gaze up at his boyfriend affectionately.  Jack leaned down and kissed Jimmy, soft and lingering. 

        Abruptly, he pushed Jimmy up off the chair and gave his backside a playful swat.  “Now off with you, I’ve got a Teddy Lupin to talk to!” 

        Jimmy grinned thankfully and looked back at Jack one last time; “I love you too,” was all he said before running out of the dorm and through the Hufflepuff common room, back to Ravenclaw Tower and the napping Lila.

 

        At dinner, Lila left Jimmy with Ciara and their other Ravenclaw friends and headed over to the Hufflepuff table to find Teddy.  He wasn’t hard to spot with that bright hair. 

        She walked over to him and said, “Teddy?”

        He turned and grinned at Lila as Jack also gave her a smile from across the table.  “Delilah!” Teddy said delightedly.

        Lila only scowled a little at the use of her full name, but she quickly got to the point.  “Look, I can’t go to Hogsmeade with you this weekend because I have a ton of homework to catch up on and-” she broke off as Teddy’s eyes turned such a pleading shade of puppy-dog-brown.

        “Please go with me to Hogsmeade.” He asked softly.

        “But I have so much to do, I-”

        “You can study on Sunday, and I’ll help you!” Teddy looked so genuinely enthusiastic at this idea that Lila’s heart melted.

        “Okay,” she gave in and smiled a little.  “Hogsmeade it is.”

        “Thank you.” Teddy’s smile really was very nice at least.

        From across the room at the Ravenclaw table, Jimmy was watching the exchange, wishing he had a pair of extendable ears on him.  He locked eyes with Jack who sat opposite Teddy – and opposite where Lila was standing – and his heart plummeted as Jack shook his head apologetically and shrugged a little.  Jimmy wished Ciara would just shut up for a moment so he could figure out how to help Lila balance school and a boyfriend, but he couldn’t come up with anything because while Jimmy was doing just fine with his balancing act, he didn’t need top grades, whereas Lila did if she wanted to be an auror, so he just shoved a piece of potato in his mouth as Lila came back over.

        Lila sat down next to Ciara, opposite Jimmy, and she only ate a very little before she was asking Jimmy if they could go back to Ravenclaw Tower and do some of their homework now.

        “But I’m not done!” Ciara mumbled through a mouthful.

        “You can meet us later.” Lila smiled at her friend and stood up from the table.  Jimmy sighed (he certainly felt he’d done a lot of sighing today) and hurried after Lila back to the Tower.  “I’ll start with the star chart because Astronomy is Sunday night…”

        Jimmy didn’t listen as Lila outlined her study plan for the night.  They chose a pair of squashy armchairs in the corner with big enough armrests to use as tables.  Jimmy managed one essay in the time it took Lila to do her star chart and finish an already started essay. 

        He grumbled as he finished, “this bloody school makes us write a stupid amount of essays.”  He looked up at Lila, expecting her to agree, but not hearing any response.

        Jimmy smiled a little as he saw Lila’s head was drooping perilously close to her just finished essay, the ink still damp on the parchment.  He stood and quickly rescued the essay, pulling out his wand and casting a quick drying charm on the ink.  He rolled the parchment and put it on top of Lila’s star chart before grabbing a blanket and gently tucking it around Lila like he’d already done once that day.  He glanced at the large grandfather clock against one wall and realised that it was actually quite late and the common room was long deserted.  Jimmy sat back down in his armchair and curled up in a ball, watching Lila as she slept.  He didn’t want to leave her here and go to bed, but he certainly wasn’t strong enough to carry her up to her own dorm.  Not for the first time Jimmy wished that Jack was a Ravenclaw because there were many, many things that would be made so much easier.  But then again, Jimmy knew that if Jack  _was_  a Ravenclaw, he wouldn’t be nearly the same lovely, kind, generous, and honest boy that he was.  Ravenclaw had a sad tendency to bring out the snob in some people, even as it brought out the creativity and intelligence in others.

        Jimmy finally decided that the best thing would be to stay in the common room with Lila so that she wouldn’t wake up alone and freak out that she hadn’t done all the homework she’d wanted to do.  Jimmy sighed for what felt like the millionth time that day and curled himself into a ball in his armchair and shut his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk about you, but I adore Jimmy and Jack with all of my heart <3 please leave a comment and let me know how you feel about this story so far!


	5. the art of staying awake

“You know what?” Jimmy asked on Friday afternoon, chucking down his essay and throwing his quill on top of it.

        Lila looked up at him, mildly annoyed that he’d ruined her essay-writing flow.  “What?”

        “We should go to the Quidditch match."

         “Why?” Lila asked sceptically, pausing from writing, quill still poised over her parchment.

        “Because quite frankly, I have written enough essays in the past week to last me all year, and I happen to have a Hufflepuff boyfriend who would probably be very grateful if I supported him in this match despite the fact that every knows they are definitely going to lose because they are versing  _Gryffindor._ ”

        “Jimmy, you know I have a lot to do.” Lila frowned at him apologetically.

        “Oh please, Lila, if I write another sentence I’ll explode!” he got down on his knees in front of her and held his hands together in front of his chest. “Please?”

        Lila rolled her eyes and laughed at Jimmy’s pleading, “okay, fine, but only this game.”

        “Yes! Thank you thank you thank you!” Jimmy jumped up and punched the air, then looked around self-consciously to the amusement of the other students in the common room.

        Lila stood up and packed up her stuff, “I’ll go tell Ciara where we’re going,” and she ran up the stairs to her dorm.  She neatly stacked the roll of parchment on her bedside table along with the quill and inkpot she’d been using. 

 

        “Jimmy, I cannot believe we stayed the entire game! Argh! I’ll never get all my homework done, this is getting ridiculous.” Lila shook her head ferociously, glaring at Jimmy with barely supressed anger and disgust.

        The other Ravenclaw glanced at her with a cheeky grin and said, “all you ever talk about it homework,” before running off down the path to congratulate Jack on Hufflepuff’s spectacular defeat.

        Lila glanced at Ciara and rolled her eyes in exasperation, the other girl giving her a sympathetic expression. 

        “Come on, De,” Ciara linked arms with Lila, “we’re gonna have to pull an all-nighter to finish our homework, even if Lupin  _is_  going to help you on Sunday.”

        “Mmm, especially for that second star chart for Sinastra,” Lila grumbled, “plus he wants me to help with his firsties on Sunday night. I am going to die.”

 

        Lila jerked upright and groaned as she saw the mess of books and parchment around her.  Thank Merlin she hadn’t fallen asleep on her wet essays.  Ciara was spread-eagled on the couch across from Lila, but the rest of the common room was deserted.  It was just Lila, Ciara, some massive bookshelves, and an ungodly hour of the morning.  She stood, wincing as the couch groaned.  She didn’t think it was fair to wake Ciara until she had some coffee for her. 

        Creeping silently up the stairs to her dormitory was surprisingly harder than she expected, but she made it and eased opened the door.  She tiptoed over to her trunk and pulled out her emergency instant coffee and two metal muggle camping mugs.

        Back in the common room on the couch opposite Ciara, Lila cleared a space on the table between them and set the mugs down before pulling out her wand.  She whispered “aguamenti,” twice and tapped each of the mugs, watching with satisfaction as the simple charm filled the mugs with water.  Then she whispered “calidi aqua,” and tapped the mugs again, causing the water to boil for a moment before settling and steaming generously.  Lila was quite proud of the little water heating charm she’d made up.  She knew there were others, but none of them seemed to boil the water like hers, rather, they just heated the water a little.  She ripped open the instant coffee sachets and put one in each mug and then spooned a generous dollop of coconut oil into each.  Lila knew that Ciara preferred the health benefit option of coconut oil in her coffee rather than milk and Lila had tried it one at Ciara’s house and her life had never been the same.  There was no going back.  Lila stirred until the coconut oil had dissolved, then she whispered at Ciara.

        “Ciara, wake up,” she stretched across the table and nudged her friend gently.  Ciara groaned and shoved her face into the couch, curling herself up into a ball.  Lila grabbed one of the mugs and wafted it in front of Ciara’s nose when the raven-haired girl turned her head towards Lila, eyes scrunched up tight.

        “Whagerrradg…” Ciara groaned.

        Lila held the coffee out to her and she sat up quickly, grabbing the mug and inhaling deeply, closing her eyes with happiness.

        “I think it’s almost eight,” Lila said, pausing to sip her coffee and brush a strand of coloured hair behind her ear, “so people will be getting up for breakfast soon because it’s a Hogsmeade weekend and the carriages start leaving at nine.”

        Ciara had her nose over her mug, allowing her to inhale the coffee scented steam before it could disperse into the air of the common room.  “How much did we actually get done?” Ciara asked.

        “Not enough,” Lila looked at the mess around them regretfully.  “I still have at least two essays to check over and that star chart to finish, but I’ll have to go to the library and find a book on the Cassiopeia constellation so that I can do the extra astrology write up as well as having the chart completed.”

        Ciara groaned and took a gulp of coffee, “that means I barely did half if you’re nearly done. And I’ll have to go to Hogsmeade with Cass and Mina because you’re going on your stupid date with Lupin, aren’t you?” Ciara slumped on the couch and threw her head back melodramatically.

        “You don’t have to go to Hogsmeade at all, you know. You could stay here and finish your homework.  And Cass and Mina are perfectly lovely people and we should probably spend more time with them anyway.”

        “We spend about eight or nine hours a night with them, isn’t that enough? Besides, I need to go to Scrivenshaft’s to get some new quills.”  Ciara sat up again and sipped her coffee. “You should get ready – can’t be late for the little teddy bear – can you?”

        Lila flushed an impressive shade of crimson that clashed horribly with her hair and downed the rest of her coffee.  She then hurried up the stairs to her dorm and rummaged through her trunk for a niceish shirt and maybe a skirt too.

 

        Teddy sat down opposite Lila in the small booth in the corner of the Three Broomsticks and plonked a large tankard of butterbeer in front of her.  Lila thanked him and then tried desperately to suppress and hide the ginormous yawn she felt coming on. Teddy grinned at her affectionately.

        “Didn’t sleep well?” he asked.

        “Barely at all, actually. Ciara and I tried to pull a homework all-nighter, but we both fell asleep before we could finish everything.” Lila rubbed her eye with one hand and picked up her butterbeer with the other.

        “Why do you do so much homework?” he leaned towards her slightly, smiling sympathetically, “surely you could just miss an essay or two?”

        Lila must have looked scandalised because Teddy leaned back and chuckled before swigging his butterbeer.

        “No! You see I have to have perfect grades in at least four subjects!”

        “But why? And surely you don’t have to work so completely non-stop to get your good grades.”

        “ _Perfect_  grades, Lupin, not  _good_ ; and I have to ‘cause I want to be an Auror.”

        “Wait, are you serious?” Teddy was leaning forward again, avid excitement in his eyes. “That’s so badass, Delilah! And please call me Teddy.”

        “I’ll call you Teddy when you call me Lila.” Lila folded her arms and tried her best to stare him down, but she could feel her heart stuttering in her chest beneath her crossed arms.

        Teddy smirked at her and leaned back, crossing his own arms. “No.”

        Lila hadn’t been expecting that, but she managed to roll her eyes and pick up her butterbeer.  “Anyway, you get brilliant marks without even trying,” she slumped back in her chair.

        “No, I don’t,” he chuckled, “my grandma’s always saying I need to work harder,” he leaned across the table and wrapped Lila’s small, pale hand in his large, tanned, warm one, “maybe you’ll be a good influence on me.”

        Lila felt weirdly mushy on the inside with her hand in Teddy’s, and she wasn’t quite sure if she liked it or not.

        “My godfather, Harry, is an Auror, maybe you could meet him? Or even get some work experience.”

        “Yeah,  _the_  Harry Potter. Everyone knows he’s an Auror, and a bloody good one at that.” Lila smiled as Teddy flushed. 

        Once again he’d forgotten that the entire Wizarding World knew the names of most of his ‘adopted’ family.

        “What do you want to be?” Lila asked gently.

        Teddy shrugged and said “dunno, maybe I’ll go to Romania with Charlie and work with dragons; or maybe I’ll- maybe I’ll just go and be a florist,” he flushed bright red again, this time his hair flushed to match his face too.  He looked down, “I’ve always liked flowers,” he mumbled.

        “I like that,” Lila smiled softly, “there’d always be a lovely place to come home to.”

        She looked up and realised what she’d just said and it was her turn to flush beetroot, “I- I mean-”

        “It’s okay,” Teddy smiled, “I know what you mean.”

        Lila smiled back and they finished their butterbeers.  She even let him hold her hand as they walked around Hogsmeade.  But she just could not stop yawing.

        As they stood outside Honeydukes, Lila yawned again and Teddy said, “You should really get more sleep before you start catching flies in there.”

        Lila almost snorted but then yawned again. “Probaaaoobllyyy.”

        “Just go to bed early tonight.”

        “But I still have two essays, half a star chart and an astrology write up on Cassiopeia’s effect on Venus to finish!”

        “Yikes.” Teddy grinned at her, “how about we have a proper homework date tomorrow? Hmm? So you can sleep tonight and then be awake enough to do the rest,” Teddy smiled down at her and squeezed her hand.

        Lila grinned mischievously at Teddy and said, “That’s a bit eager – scheduling the second date the day after the first.”

        Teddy let go of her hand and threw both of his up in the air, “what can I say? I like spending all my time with you, Delilah.”

        “Fine, I’ll sleep early, then we can do homework tomorrow. Library?” she raised her eyebrows at him questioningly.

        “Meet me outside the Hufflepuff common room at eleven.”

        “A.M?”

        “Obviously,” he smiled down at her and claimed her hand again as they left Honeydukes with a mountain of their best chocolate. 

        "That's an awful lot of chocolate." Lila eyed Teddy's bag sceptically.

        "Harry says the chocolate thing is something I get from my father." A sad look crept into his eyes as his hair roots started to turn a darker blue.

        In an attempt to distract him a little, Lila said, "I'm not sure I get anything from my father.  Except maybe my single-minded devotion to becoming an Auror.  Although, maybe that's  just his devotion?"


	6. the art of class debates

The next day at exactly eleven of the clock in the morning, Lila was standing outside the pile of barrels that were apparently the door to the Hufflepuff common room.  She didn’t know if he was supposed to knock or just stand there until either a Hufflepuff came along or someone (preferably Teddy) opened it from within.  Not knowing was something Lila hated.  It made her kind of twitchy and nervous and she felt nervous or anxious often enough as it was without this extra layer.

        Lila stood there awkwardly for a few minutes before deciding she’d leave if someone didn’t come in the next five minutes.

        Two minutes into those five minutes, Lila heard a kind of scraping sound, like wood against stone.  She took a step back from the pile of barrels just as they swung outwards into the space she’d been occupying a moment ago.  She peered around the barrels to see a friendly face attached to a familiar human standing in the doorway.

        “Hey,” Lila sighed in relief.

        “Hey Delilah,” Teddy replied, grinning at her happily, his bright hair softening to a gentle powder blue.

        Lila hugged her satchel to her chest as she stepped through the doorway to the common room.  Once inside she stared around, a smile forming on her face.  There were high round windows along the far wall with morning sunlight streaming in, bathing the whole room in a warm, golden glow; the walls were a soft yellow and dirt brown mix, enhanced by the sunlight; there was just about every imaginable muggle and magical plant that wasn’t dangerous, crammed into pots all over the room, climbing walls, and hanging from the ceiling in various ways.  There were several cheerful yellow couches arranged at different points in the room along with the odd coffee table among the plants. 

        There were also several Hufflepuffs seated in small groups around the room.  Lila loved that no one was sitting by themselves; everyone had someone else.

        “Lila!” Bree appeared out of a doorway to the right that Lila assumed led to the girls’ dorms.

        “Hey,” She smiled and returned the warm hug the redhead gave her.

          A few other Hufflepuffs looked at her curiously and smiled warmly, but what struck Lila most was that no one objected to a Ravenclaw being in their common room.  She knew from experience that some of the more snooty Ravenclaws would not be very accepting of students from other houses being in their intellectual haven.

          “What brings you here?” Bree asked cheerfully as Teddy led Lila to a couch in the corner with a very large coffee table.

          “Study… um… date,” she flushed a brilliant scarlet and risked a quick glance at Teddy.  He was practically glowing with happiness; it was actually kind of adorable.

        “Study date?” A girl and a boy who looked scarily similar despite the gender differences walked over.

         “You need snacks,” the boy said as soon as the girl finished speaking. 

        The pair ran off into the dorms that Bree had appeared out of.

        “Those are the Williams’ twins,” Teddy said, taking Lila’s hand as she sat on the couch beside him.

        “They love cooking and baking, and honestly, everything they make is utterly  _divine_ ,” Bree finished for him.

        “Lila smiled, “you told me about their cookies in Potions,” she said to Bree. 

        Lila kept talking to Bree, but she was really focusing on the fuzzy feeling she was getting in her stomach as Teddy softly rubbed her knuckles as they sat there, hand in hand.  Lila had never realised quite how much she liked hand-holding before she met Teddy because really all affection to others before him was her parents or Ciara, or sometimes Jimmy and Bree.

        Basically, it was nice.  It made her feel good.

 

        That night Lila rushed up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower, her unfinished star chart and yet another essay shoved haphazardly into her bag.  As lovely as hanging out in the Hufflepuff common room with Teddy – and everyone else who had ended up joining them – had been, absolutely nothing had been done and Lila was really starting to panic.  Tonight she was helping Sinastra with the first years, but she was supposed to hand in her star chart tonight because she’d already been given one extension and she wouldn’t dare ask for another.

        Finally she reached the top of the stairs and as she looked around, was satisfied to find that she was the first there.  Lila flopped down against one of the ornate pillars and quickly pulled out her star chart and her new self-inking quill.  It was basically a muggle ballpoint pen now, except,  _fancier_.

        Lila had finished the star chart and was a quarter through the essay when she looked up to find most of the first year class milling around aimlessly.

        Just then, Professor Sinastra appeared at the top of the stairs with a huge stack of ancient textbooks. 

        “Grab a book, please, and let’s get started!” The professor called over the voices of the firsties.

        Lila noticed Timmy hurry up to Professor Sinastra eagerly; he was obviously very interested in Astronomy, and with an astrophysicist for a father, who wouldn’t be? 

        “Everyone, please turn to page six hundred and two and do questions one through five, then we’ll get out the telescopes.  Miss Carne and I will be available to help if necessary.  Any questions?”

        Lila covered her mouth to hide the smile that formed when Timmy put up his hand.

        “Professor, when were these textbooks published?” he asked innocently enough.

        “They were first published the year this very school was founded,” Sinastra replied proudly.

        “And… they haven’t been updated since?”

        “I should think not. They have, of course, been reprinted.”

        “Professor, these books are horrifically out of date and are missing tons of important information, it’s 2015 for goodness sake! These books were published in 990 A.D!”

        Lila was struggling to hide her laughter by this point and Professor Sinastra looked thoroughly perturbed.

        “I appreciate your concern, MacNab, but I assure you that everything you need to know about the heavens is in these books.”

        Timmy closed his eyes for a moment, then turned to the rest of the class, “you do at least know that the Americans went to the moon half a century ago, right?”

        “They WHAT???”

        There were gasps and little shrieks from many of the students and some were openly laughing now – those would be the muggleborns – and everyone had started talking and arguing and Timmy was yelling over the chaos about how stars were formed and the gases they were made up of and the absolute infinity of the universe among other things.

        Lila was laughing out loud now as she watched the professor looked utterly astonished and bewildered at the same time.

        “Alright, settle down! There's no need for this racket!”

        It took several minutes for the class to finally quiet and sit down again.

        “Master MacNab, if you would like to take this up with the Headmistress tomorrow morning, I would be more than happy to escort you to her office.”

        Timmy immediately shut his mouth and flushed a deep crimson, his white-blond hair flopping into his face as he appeared to shrink into himself.

        “Let me know if you change your mind tomorrow,” Sinastra smiled kindly at Timmy’s embarrassment and continued, “page six hundred and two, questions one through five.  Miss Carne, a word, please.”

        Lila’s grin slipped off her face as she stood and the Professor led her away from the first years and towards a secluded alcove.

        “I trust you finished the star chart?”

        “Yes, Professor, I have it right here,” she handed the completed chart to Professor Sinastra.

        “And I believe I asked you to finish the astrology write up too?”

        The look on Lila’s face was answer enough.  The mixture of guilt, shame and anxiety told Sinastra all that was needed.

        “Delilah,” Professor Sinastra said quietly, “your grades are slipping and you’re not completing assigned work, I’m going to have to inform your parents as they’ve specifically requested to be notified at any changes in your grades and work ethic.”

        Lila hated herself for it, but she could feel the tears prickling behind her eyes and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to keep them from falling.  “Oh Professor, please don’t tell my parents, I promise I’ll get my grades back up, I will!”

        “I’m sorry, Miss Carne, but I really have no choice.” The professor did look sympathetic, but Lila was panicking now.

        “My parents can’t know! Please, Professor-”

        “Miss Carne! It isn’t my place to withhold requested information from your parents.  As I won’t be needing your assistance for the rest of this class, I advise you to get some sleep.”  Professor Sinastra gripped Lila’s arm comfortingly, but Lila was well and truly crying at this point.

        She sniffed and wiped her eyes, nodding and apologising to the professor.  Lila made her way down the spiralling flight of stairs and across the corridor to the flight leading across the castle and then up to Ravenclaw Tower. 

        There was a soft whisper behind her as she crossed to the staircase up to Ravenclaw Tower, “Are you alright, dearie?”

        Lila turned around and looked at the kindly woman in the portrait that had spoken.  She sniffed and tried to smile, nodding at her, “yes, thank you, I’m fine.”

        “You don’t look fine, hun, come, tell me what’s the matter?”

        “I should really be getting to my dormitory-“

        “I insist. You have the looks of needing to tell someone, and my bet is you won’t be telling your friends.”

        Lila walked over to the portrait and examined the woman.  She was wearing a pale grey dress with a white apron, she was plump, her face was slightly wrinkled but kind and framed with a few wispy tendrils of pale hair, the rest being swept up into a bun, and she was holding a small posy of pale pink and blue flowers. 

        “What’s your name?” Lila asked.

        “Oh! No one’s asked me that in many a year!” She laughed with a pleasant kind of tinkling sound and continued, “Maisie was my name. Maisie Fitzgibbons, born 1562, died-” here she looked a bit sad, “died 1605.  I was murdered, you see, by my husband, too.” Maisie gave Lila a grim smile and said, “he found out about my lover.  I was careless and foolish.  But it was my lover who commissioned this portrait and had it hung here.  He was Head of Ravenclaw for a time, you see.  Now dearie, tell me what’s wrong.”

        Lila was horrified that the lady in this portrait had been murdered by her own husband, but somehow, Lila felt as if this Maisie Fitzgibbons would understand.

        “Well,” she began, “There’s this stupid boy who I guess I’m sort of dating? And he’s really nice and I think I do actually like him, I don’t know, but he’s taking up time I just don’t have because I want to be an Auror when I leave Hogwarts and my parents are determined to keep me on that track, so I need to have perfect grades in most of my subjects.  But this boy just keeps popping up when I need to work and then when I am working I can’t focus and my grades are slipping now and I just don’t know if I can do this, but I don’t want to let him or my parents’ down-”

        “Dearie, you need to put your wellbeing before this boy or your parents.  You need to decide what’s most important to you, hun, you have some choices to make.”

        “I know, but-”

        “I suggest you head up to Ravenclaw Tower now, lovey, and get a good night’s sleep.  That will make decisions much easier, trust me.”

        Lila frowned a little, but nodded and said, “Okay, thank you, Maisie.”

        “My pleasure, dearie. Do come back and visit, won’t you?”

        “Of course.” Lila walked away from the portrait feeling slightly dissatisfied with the well-intended advice, but nevertheless feeling better for having told someone what was going on.  She decided once she’d reached her dorm, that maybe a good night’s sleep was exactly what she needed and she could finish the astrology write up in the morning before class.


	7. the art of barely coping

        Just over a week later Lila slumped into her spot next to Ciara and opposite Jimmy for breakfast at the Ravenclaw table.  She tiredly grabbed a piece of toast and buttered it slowly.  It took her a moment to realise that neither of her friends had said good morning and that both of them were staring at her intently.

        “Lila… are you feeling okay?” Jimmy asked, frowning at her, “no offence, but you look awful.”

        “’No offence,’” Lila muttered darkly, “sure.”  Despite going to bed at a decent hour every night the last week – decent still being as late as midnight most of the time – the entire last week, the constant loads of uncompleted homework and not knowing if Professor Sinastra had notified her parents was really grating on her nerves.  Lila knew there were deep purple circles under her eyes that she hadn’t managed to cover with her cheap concealer, and that her skin was most definitely paler than it should be at this time of year.

        “Woah,” Jimmy whispered in concern.

        Lila knew she shouldn’t take it out on her friends but everything was just pissing her off this morning and taking it out on her toast wasn’t going very well.  The poor slice was now several small slivers scattered over her plate; none of which actually reached her mouth.

        “I’m fine.” She snapped, shoving her plate away and avoiding Jimmy’s eyes, “I just need some Pepper Up potion.”

        “Lila, you are not fine, come on, talk to us,” Ciara said sternly.

        Right at that moment the owls started flying in with the morning post, saving Lila from having to answer Ciara right away.  She quickly tried to formulate an appropriate retort while they watched the noisy birds dropping letters and packages all over the hall.  She was mildly surprised when a small envelope landed in front of her, precariously close to her abandoned toast.  She picked up the letter as the barn owl that had delivered it flew a wide circle and swooped back out the window.  Her parents didn’t own an owl so Lila was certainly curious as to how they had managed to send her this letter, because it could hardly be from anyone else.

        Lila apprehensively ripped open the envelope and pulled out a small sheet of paper that smelt vaguely of vanilla; her mum’s favourite perfume.  She ignored Jimmy and Ciara as they watched her with cautious concern.

        She skimmed over the letter quickly and felt her eyes well up with tears she didn’t want to shed in the Great Hall in front of everyone.  The paper crumpled in her hand as she unconsciously formed fists and dug her fingernails into her palms to stop herself from crying, but Lila could already tell it wasn’t working as the prickling behind her eyeballs stopped and the burn that always preceded tears began. 

        “I- I need to go.” Her voice wavered as she quickly stood and walked as fast as she could out of the Great Hall so as not to attract too much unwanted attention by running.

        “Lila!” Jimmy called after her, but she didn’t turn around, she just kept her eyes down and walked faster and as soon as she was out the doors she started to run. 

        Jimmy stared after her with concern as Ciara said, “we really need to talk to her.”

        “Or maybe  _he_  can…” Jimmy said, standing as Teddy walked into the Great Hall with a frown on his face as he headed for the Hufflepuff table.  Jimmy left Ciara to finish her cereal and started in the same direction, reaching the Hufflepuff table just as Teddy sat down opposite Jack.  Jimmy slid into the spot next to his boyfriend and quickly slipped his hand into Jack’s, their fingers entwining as naturally as breathing.

        “Hey,” Jack smiled warmly at Jimmy, his eyes crinkling in that way that made Jimmy feel all warm and mushy.

        “Hey,” Jimmy smiled back fondly, but he couldn’t completely erase the frown that dominated his usually cheery features.

        Jack glanced across the table at Teddy and then back to Jimmy, his own face contorting into a frown as he said, “What’s with all the frowning this morning?”  He reached up to Jimmy’s face and used his thumb to smooth the wrinkles out of his forehead and brushing back the pale hair that had fallen into Jimmy’s face.

        This made Jimmy smile a bit before saying, “actually, it’s Lila.”

        “Again?”

        “Again.” Jimmy confirmed, “She’s not doing too well-” he turned to Teddy, “and I was hoping maybe you could talk to her, Teddy?”

        Teddy’s frown deepened as he said, “she ran past me when I came into the Hall, and she didn’t reply when I called her name. I was going to follow her but…” he threw up his hands in irritation.  “I don’t know. I should have followed her, I’m her boyfriend. Merlin.”

        “I don’t think she would have appreciated being followed just now, but she needs someone to talk to and she refuses to talk to me or Ciara, so maybe she’ll talk to you?” Jimmy said hopefully.

        Jimmy glanced back at Jack and the taller boy put a finger under Jimmy’s chin to keep his sweet, hopeful face looking at him and brought Jimmy’s face close enough that he could kiss his nose.  “I don’t know anyone with as much hope as you, Jimmy,” he said affectionately.

        “Hmm.” Teddy hummed, completely used to their PDA by now, “I’ll try find her before class.” He took an absent bite of toast as the frown resumed its spot on his face, his hair darkening to a stormy purple.

        Jimmy turned back to Jack and sighed, plonking his forehead onto his boyfriend’s shoulder.

        Jack gave a deep chuckle and said, “Hey, Lila will be fine.”

        “I hope so.” Jimmy lifted his head and pulled his hand out of Jack’s, “I should get my stuff for class.”

        Jack slipped his now freed hand around Jimmy’s waist before he could get up and pulled him closer on the bench so that their hips bumped together before pressing his lips to Jimmy’s and then saying, “I have a better idea,” with a smirk that made Jimmy’s insides do flip flops like he was twelve again.

        “Oh?” Jimmy pulled back and raised one eyebrow as seductively as he could manage.

        Jack laughed and pulled him up from the bench before re-entwining their hands and pulling the smaller boy out of the hall.  They ran down a corridor and around a couple of corners until they were only a few corridors over from the Hufflepuff common room.  Jack pushed Jimmy against the hard stone wall and heatedly pressed his body along the length of Jimmy’s, kissing the other boy’s neck firmly, possessively.

        Jimmy gasped and leaned into Jack’s kiss, hands roaming the Quidditch player’s muscular torso.  “How did I ever end up with someone like you?” He laughed, thinking of his own scrawny frame, all thoughts of Lila and Teddy banished in the heat of Jack’s passion.

 

        Lila didn’t realise who she’d just brushed past on her way out of the Hall until he called after her.

        “Delilah?”

        She ran faster.  She didn’t want Teddy to see the hot salty tears now streaming down her face.  She ran up so many flights of stairs she lost count and then went up another.  She ran down some more corridors until she was in a part of the castle she knew hardly anyone ever visited since it had been rebuilt after the war.  Everyone seemed to agree it wasn’t just haunted by ghosts, but by the dark memories of their parents’ pasts.  Lila slowed down to a walk as another sob racked her body.  It was loud and harsh and she was all shaking and hot and suddenly she felt like she was going to vomit.  She was no longer sure what floor she was on, but on most floors she knew there was a bathroom just around this corner, so she started to run again, fighting the gag she felt working its way up her throat.  She flung open the door of the bathroom and leaned over a sink, tie loose, sleeves shoved up her arms, and her skirt all crooked, but right now, she couldn’t care less.

        Lila let out another loud sob and gripped the cool sink, knuckles white, then suddenly a burning wave of rage surged over her and she screamed, kicking the pipes underneath the sink violently.  Then she let out a little shriek as water spurted from one of them.

        “Why are you crying in  _my_  bathroom?!” Came a high-pitched whine from the direction of the cubicles.

        Lila looked over, even knowing her eyes were puffy and red, and saw Moaning Myrtle floating there.  Everyone knew the story of Moaning Myrtle, the basilisk and how Harry Potter had defeated it when he was only twelve, it was practically a bedtime story now; even muggleborn Lila knew it. 

        She just slid down the damp wall between the sinks until she was sitting on the wet floor and she put head in her hands and felt her shoulders shake violently as she cried even harder.

        “Oh? Why are  _you_  crying?” Myrtle sounded almost gleeful that it wasn’t her crying this time.

        “Go away, Myrtle,” Lila mumbled from underneath her hands.

        “No,  _you_  go away, it’s  _my_ bathroom, stupid.”

        Lila sniffed and wiped her face on her sleeve, shoving her parents’ letter into her pocket and standing.  She stood up and straightened her skirt, giving Myrtle a glare and then walking out of the bathroom and heading back to Ravenclaw Tower to get her things for her first class of the day.  Lila dreaded the inevitable piles of homework each new day brought and she constantly felt guilty for every second she spent with Teddy or her friends because she always knew there was more work she should be doing.  She didn’t know how much longer she could keep it up.  What she  _really_  needed was a nice long stress-free break.


	8. the art of house unity

That night, Lila was in her pyjamas and reading in bed in her deserted dorm room by eight o’clock p.m.  She was so ready to go to bed early that she had put all her homework into her trunk so that she wouldn’t see it and start panicking.  Looking at it staring right back at her as she neglected it stressed her out way too much and she was so done with feeling like she was constantly drowning in work.

                Lila was just getting to the best part of her book (which she had already read at least three times) when there came a knock on her dormitory door and a soft whisper.

                “Delilah?”

                Lila quickly pulled a sweater over her skimpy pink pyjamas and went to open the door.  “How did you get up here? The stairs are only supposed to let Ravenclaws up!”  She watched in fascination as the face she knew morphed into a vaguely familiar one of some Ravenclaw second year she’d seen maybe three times.

                “You know, that really shouldn’t work because your entire DNA can’t change, can it?”

                Teddy let his face change back to his own, his bright hair flickering between his signature bubblegum blue and a greenish teal.  “What’s DNA?”

        “Ugh, it’s a muggle thing, don’t worry. What are you doing?”  And that was when Lila noticed that Teddy was dressed in nothing but his own pyjamas, consisting of little more than a loose white t-shirt and some boxer shorts.  She grabbed his wrist and quickly pulled him into her dorm, slamming the door behind him.  She suddenly felt awfully hot and flustered at his proximity and the fact that they were both essentially unclothed, but she managed to stammer out; “and why aren’t you wearing any clothes?!”

        “These technically are clothes you know, and why did you run out of the Hall at dinner?” He smiled softly at her with concern and pulled her into a hug, dropping a kiss on the top of her head.  If it was possible for Lila to blush any more than she already was, in that moment she did.

        "I- I don't want to talk about it.  Why are you here?"

        Teddy respected her choice not to tell him and said; "I’m here because you need cheering up.  Come on,” he then grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the door.

        “But I’m only wearing pyjamas!”

        “Me too!” He laughed, not letting go of her hand.  Teddy kept her hand in his large, warm one as he pulled her through the full Ravenclaw common room, past a gawking Ciara and a heap of other students, through the door and down the Tower stairs.  When Teddy had almost pulled her right down to the main doors out of the castle was when Lila really started protesting.

        “Lupin, where the hell are you taking me? We can’t go outside, it’s almost curfew!”

        Suddenly a portrait to their right spoke up, causing Lila to shriek and jump backwards into Teddy.  He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her from behind. 

        “Hold on, dears, there’s a professor just around there,” the woman in the portrait disappeared out of the frame for a moment and then reappeared quickly and said, “okay, you’re clear, have fun!”

        “Thank you,” Teddy murmured to the portrait, releasing me from his grip.

        My heart was well and truly hammering by now, the last thing I needed at the moment was to end up with detentions for sneaking around the school after curfew.

        “Edward Lupin, where the hell are you taking me?” I demanded as he took my hand again and pulled me around the corner towards the doors.

        “Trust me.” Was all he said and out of the doors they went.

         Lila had a very vague idea that they seemed to be heading for the Quidditch Pitch, but the air was freezing and dark and she kept stumbling, not sure of her footing on the  uneven path she’d only walked about twice in her life at Hogwarts.

        “A-are we going towards the Quidditch Pitch?” Lila stuttered through her now chattering teeth as she shivered in the frigid night air.  The only thing keeping any part of her warm was Teddy’s hand around hers.

        “Nearly there,” was all he said.

        Lila rolled her eyes and tried to pull her sweater tighter around her one-handed.

        Suddenly the air was ablaze with floating lanterns and floodlights, the noise and chatter of at least one hundred students permeated the air.  Lila blinked and stumbled again.  Teddy caught her and laughed outright at the obvious shock plastered over her face. 

        Finally he began to give Lila an explanation, “every second Friday we have a free-for-all night time Quidditch match.  There are silencing charms and all sorts of light concealing charms we cast around the pitch so that the teachers don’t find out.” 

        They were standing on a small rise that easily overlooked the pitch and Lila looked down to see students crowded into the space, milling around, some hovering on broomsticks, all talking excitedly and all wearing pyjamas.  There were so many colours and patterns that it was impossible to tell who was from what House.  As far as Lila was concerned, this was the most spectacular display of House unity that had ever existed.  Her face lit up and her whole body felt lighter and warmer.  Teddy beamed at her a voice boomed over the pitch from the commentator’s box.

        “Everyone, please form your teams and spectators start making your way to the stands!”

        “I-is that  _Jimmy_?” Lila stared incredulously at the commentator’s box, turning to Teddy with her eyebrows raised.

        “It absolutely is.” Teddy laughed as Lila briefly lifted her eyes heavenward.  “Come on, you can sit with him to watch the game, you’ll love it.” He took her hand again and led her down the small hill and towards the stands.

        “But I don’t know the first thing about Quidditch!” Lila exclaimed.

        “Oh, no one follows the rules,” Teddy replied with a grin, “these games are a  _mess_.”

        Jimmy’s voice boomed across the pitch once more as an attractive dark skinned boy zoomed past the commentator’s box on his broom.  “Zabini, I swear to Merlin, you are going to  _slide_  off your broom with bloody silk pyjamas!”

        “Silk pyjamas?!” Lila laughed incredulously, turning back to Teddy, but he was off onto the pitch among all the other students trying to form teams so Lila ran up the steps inside the main stand and shoved past a few students so that she was standing almost in the commentator’s box, right next to Jimmy.

        “Lila!” He exclaimed, quickly pulling the magical megaphone away from his mouth and giving her a quick side hug.  “I didn’t think Teddy would be able to persuade you to come!”

        “Persuade?! HA! He just abducted me without a word of explanation!”

        Jimmy grinned at her and patted the seat beside him as they glanced out over the pitch again.  “Jordans, everyone knows it’s you, even with the balaclava, no one will pass you the Quaffle!” he laughed into the megaphone, “send up your team colour to register, first two teams to do so will play tonight!”

        Lila looked out over the pitch and saw that someone was sending up bright purple sparks with their wand, but they were standing with two others while the other teams that had formed were considerably larger.

        “That’s not a team Swither, get off the pitch!” Jimmy jeered good-naturedly into the megaphone.

        Swither was pushed towards the stand, but Lila was relieved to see he was grinning.

        “Okay, Team Orange and Team Magenta are playing tonight! Pick a team or get off the pitch!” Jimmy called.

        Lila was getting shock after shock tonight, this was a side of Jimmy she’d rarely seen before, but she loved how confident he was in this capacity.

        “AND THE BALLS HAVE BEEN RELEASED!” Jimmy yelled, jumping out of his seat and bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly.  “Lupin has the Quaffle, and he dodges Smith! Oh, an expert pass to Rodgers who passes to- GO JACK GO!” He shrieked at his boyfriend as the Hufflepuff flung the Quaffle through the tallest hoop, none of the apparent six Keepers on the other teams managing to save it.  “50 points to Orange!” Jimmy cheered, pressing the button on the scoreboard.  “Oooohhhhh, Oglivie just hit a nasty Bludger at Lupin!”

        Lila held her breath as she saw the smallish ball speeding towards Teddy, she gasped as he dropped into a dramatic nosedive to avoid the Bludger, narrowly missing Zabini who hooned past just below him just as Teddy pulled back up and caught the reddish Quaffle once more.

        “Lupin has the Quaffle! ZABINI’S SEEN THE SNITCH! COULD THIS BE THE SHORTEST GAME ON RECORD??!!!”

        A blonde girl whizzed past where Lila was sitting and tailed Zabini, at least three other students quickly following as shouts and cheers erupted from students in the stands.

        “Zabini has lost sight of the Snitch!” Jimmy said in disappointment as the dark skinned boy slowed.  “But Lupin has the Quaffle- AND HE SCORES! 50 POINTS TO ORANGE, MAKING THE SCORE 100 TO NIL!”

        Lila watched the entire game with avid interest, immensely enjoying the fact that there didn’t actually appear to be any rules at all.  Jimmy kept up a constant stream of entertaining commentary with the occasional friendly crack at someone.  Lila mostly kept her eyes on Teddy.  She was really beginning to appreciate just why he was so fit and muscular.  Quidditch was a hard game.  Especially without any rules.

        “AND DAVIDSON IS OFF! HAS HE SEEN THE SNITCH?! ZABINI I  _TOLD_ YOU THOSE SILK PYJAMAS WERE A BAD IDEA!” Jimmy yelled excitedly as the boy took off after Davidson, spending an awkward moment repositioning himself on his broom as he slid closer to the handle.  “FIRST YEAR, POTTER II HAS THE QUAFFLE! Oh and HE SCORES FOR MAGENTA, BOOO! Sorry, I might be a little biased? 50 points, making the score 350 to Orange, 200 to Magenta!” Jimmy bounced up and down as he put the scores onto the scoreboard.

        Lila glanced over at Jimmy and he grinned at her.  Lila discovered just how infectious his grin could be in that terrible light and she grinned right back.  Teddy soared past and Lila admired the way his t-shirt was plastered to his body by the wind and his sweat.  He yelled something unintelligible and suddenly Zabini pulled out of his dive after Davidson.

        “WHAT IS ZABINI DOING? HAS HE LOST SIGHT OF THE SNITCH? NO, THERE HE GOES AFTER DAVIDSON AGAIN! Who will catch it? Zabini or Davidson?! Both are seekers for their House teams, but out here anything can happen!”

        As if Jimmy’s words had been a prophecy, a blonde-haired girl in purple Barbie pyjamas dropped down just in front of Zabini and Davidson and reached out.  Lila saw a flash of gold as her fist closed and Jimmy yelled next to her.

        “I told you so! VICTOIRE WEASLEY HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH! ORANGE WINS!” Jimmy jumped up and down on the spot and then yanked Lila into a hug as they laughed and cheered.  “Come on! I have to congratulate Jack!” Jimmy yelled over the noisy cheering and chanting of the other students.  He grabbed Lila’s hand and they ran down the stairs together, giggling like first years.

        Once they reached the pitch they were immediately swamped by all the other students who were now on the pitch too and usually this would have made Lila all anxious and panicky, but tonight, she felt wonderful.  Jimmy let go of her hand and ran off towards Jack and as Lila watched, smiling, Jack picked Jimmy up as they kissed and Jimmy wrapped his legs around Jack, making Lila laugh.  Then there was a voice right behind her.

        “Delilah.”

        She spun on the spot and threw her arms around Teddy, grinning madly, “That was insane! You were so amazing!”

        Teddy chuckled and pulled away slightly, reaching out to tuck a stray strand of Lila’s pale lilac hair behind her ear.  “I knew it would cheer you up.”

        Lila smiled up at Teddy and said, “thank you,” as sincerely as she could manage just then.

        Teddy’s hand was still lingering on the side of her face and Lila suddenly became very aware of just how close they were to each other.  Pushed even closer together by the surging crowds around them.

        “Delilah.”

        “Lupin.”

        “Call me Teddy,” his voice grew suddenly huskier and Lila definitely noticed as he pulled her against him.

        “Call me Lila.”

        “Lila.”

        “Teddy,” she whispered.

        And then his hands were in her hair and his lips were pressed gently against hers.  Lila’s hands naturally came up to his chest as the butterflies exploded into her body and surged through her stomach like the crowd on the Quidditch Pitch around them.  When they pulled apart Lila flushed deeply and looked at the ground as she realised that Jimmy and Jack were watching and cheering while Lila and Teddy were kissing.  Jack let out a loud catcall and she blushed even harder.  Teddy laughed and put an arm around her waist, pulling her close again as they headed towards their friends.

        Jack grinned at the other three and said, “Everyone’s crashing in Hufflepuff tonight.  Easier access to the junk food feast the House Elves have prepared for us.”

        “How have the teachers never found out about this?” Lila asked even more incredulously than she had before.  Naturally, after experiencing the midnight Quidditch game it was even harder to believe that the teachers didn’t know.

        The three boys just grinned at her before bursting out laughing as Teddy squeezed her to him gently and simply said “magic.”


	9. the art of not knowing

        Lila could physically feel herself falling asleep as she sat at the Ravenclaw table the next morning.  Her head was drooping perilously close to her plate just before she woke up with a jerk as Jimmy sat down opposite her.

        “Morning!” Jimmy grinned and Lila groaned at the far too enthusiastic greeting.  There was a certain twinkle in Jimmy’s eyes this morning. 

        Although, Lila reflected, it almost wasn’t the morning anymore.  Thankfully, breakfast seemed to go for an insanely long time on Saturday mornings, so Lila never seemed to miss it.

        “You’re cheery this morning.” Jimmy commented as he buttered a piece of toast.

        “Mmph,” Lila groaned, rubbing her eyes in an effort to wake herself up, “how do you cope with that so often?”

        Jimmy knew she was referring to the crazy Quidditch match of the night prior, and he opened his mouth to reply, but Teddy slid into the spot next to Lila and wrapped his arm around her waist, saying, “No one needs as much sleep as you do.”

        “It’s nature’s cruel joke,” she plonked her head onto Teddy’s shoulder with another groan, “I have the most to do but I get the least time to do it.”  The last part was muffled into Teddy’s shoulder. 

        Lila heard Jimmy make a soft noise and Teddy said good morning, so without having to lift her head she knew that Jack had joined them. 

        “How is everyone so awake and cheerful?” Lila asked again, lifting her head off Teddy’s shoulder and grimacing at Jack’s wide grin and tousled hair as he sat down next to Jimmy and wrapped his arm comfortably around his boyfriend. 

        “I’m pretty sure it takes more energy to be grumpy, Lila,” Jack laughed softly.

        “Hmph.”

        “Come on,” Teddy gave her a gentle squeeze and kissed the top of her head, “let’s get out of here.”

        “Mmmkay,” Lila mumbled back, smiling at Teddy’s warm affection and leaning on his shoulder, but not actually making any move to stand.

        She felt his chest vibrate with a deep chuckle as she leaned into him and closed her eyes again.  “Delilah, come on, there are better places to sleep.”

        Lila sighed and dragged herself up, allowing Teddy to take her hand and lead her out of the Great Hall and away from their friends. 

        “I don’t have very long because I’m serving a detention with Binns for a fifth year, but we could just go relax in Hufflepuff if you like?”

        “Yeah, sure.”

        Teddy chuckled again; Lila was clearly far too tired to actually function today so he’d just take her to the Hufflepuff common room where she could sleep companionably. 

        Once they were inside the common room, Teddy sat down on the squidgy mustard sofa in the corner of the room where they were less likely to be disturbed and pulled Lila down next to him.  She immediately pulled her legs up under her and snuggled into his chest.  He wrapped his arms around her protectively and listened as her breathing slowed.  When he was certain Lila was asleep he started stroking her lilac hair and humming a small ditty to himself.  He couldn’t remember where he’d learnt the song, but he often found himself humming it under his breath when he was particularly happy. 

        Teddy didn’t realise it, but as he sat there with Lila curled up on him, humming the ditty, his hair was slowly paling to a shade almost identical to Lila’s. 

        Across the common room, Jack came out of the dorms pulling on a jacket and he cast a quick glance around, pausing briefly on Teddy and Lila, a smile tugging at his lips as he turned away and left, making his way towards the waiting Jimmy.

        “I don’t know what you were worried about,” Jack said once he reached Jimmy, slipping his fingers between the smaller boy’s, “those two are perfect for each other.”

        Jimmy looked up at him quickly with a pained expression.  “It was never about them not working together,” he sighed, “It’s just that Lila has so much on her plate that I worry Teddy will distract her too much.”

        “Well, at least he’s letting her sleep now- Merlin knows she needs it.”  They began walking down the corridor at a leisurely pace. 

        “It’s his fault she’s so tired in the first place, remember it was his idea to take her to the game.”

        “Jimmy, you worry too much,” Jack stopped and pulled Jimmy towards him, pressing their hips together and brushing a strand of pale hair out of the shorter boy’s eyes.  “Lila can take care of herself.”

        “Sometimes I wonder.”

        “Don’t.”

        “Jack-“

        “Jimmy, today is about us, stop worrying about Lila.”

        “But-”

        Jack cut him off by leaning down slightly and quickly pressing his lips to Jimmy’s, his hands running through the soft curls, thoroughly tousling them. 

        When Jack pulled away to breathe, Jimmy opened his mouth to say they shouldn’t make out in the corridor, but Jack quickly put a finger on his lips to shush him.  Suddenly Jack couldn’t take his eyes of Jimmy’s lips and he dragged his finger down them softly, causing Jimmy to make a small noise in the back of his throat and press himself hard against Jack, jolting him back into the wall of the corridor, leaning into him hungrily.

        Jack tilted his head back teasingly, not letting Jimmy reach his lips too quickly, so the shorter boy retaliated by biting the soft pale skin just above Jack’s collarbone, making him groan.  Jimmy grinned in satisfaction at the red mark he left on Jack’s skin.   _Mine,_  it said.  Jack finally leaned his head forwards and his lips found Jimmy’s quickly and naturally.  He gently tugged Jimmy’s bottom lip between his teeth and then ducked his head down and licked Jimmy’s neck, making the other boy giggle.

        “What was that for?” Jimmy grinned up at Jack.

        “Because I felt like it,” Jack growled, pushing Jimmy back and then spinning around so that Jimmy’s back was to the wall.  He quickly thrust himself against Jimmy who groaned and then decided  _what the hell_ and wrapped his legs around Jack’s waist, trusting His Muscular Boyfriend, The Quidditch Player to hold his weight.

        “Aw gross, ew, I did not need to see that,” came a loud voice.

        Jimmy quickly dropped his legs as Jack pulled away slightly to look over his shoulder at the newcomer. 

        “Ciara? What are you doing?” Jimmy carefully felt his tender lower lip as he eyed Ciara warily.

        “Oh, you know, just wandering around the castle looking for someone to spend the day with, but – as per usual – little everyone is cooped up in some corner snogging the life out of someone else.  Disgusting.”  She grinned, “now that I’ve found you, you’re coming with me.  We’re going to Hogsmeade.”

        “But it’s not a Hogsmeade weekend,” Jack said, running a hand through his hair as he followed them back down the corridor. 

        “I know.” There was a glint in her eyes that Jack didn’t particularly care for.  “There’s this map that has all the secret pathways to Hogsmeade, and I just so happened to ‘borrow’ it from the lovely Victoire Weasely-” she used her fingers to put quote marks around ‘borrow’, causing Jimmy to roll his eyes, “-who had just recently nicked it off our little Teddy bear.  So you see, my dear Jimmy, there are things that lovely Lila is not telling us.”

        Jimmy rolled his eyes again as he kept pace with Ciara up a flight of stairs, “you know that isn’t true, Ciara, Teddy probably hasn’t even told her about this supposed map yet.”

        “What a terrible boyfriend.”

        Jimmy glanced back at Jack, knowing full well that there were things they hadn’t told each other until months into their relationship, and there were probably still things they hadn’t told each other.  “I don’t think that’s fair-”

        “Whatever, Jimmy, we’re going to Hogsmeade, come along,” she grabbed his wrist and dragged him around a corner.

        Jack ran after them and groaned as they turned the corner, mumbling to himself, “how come  _I’m_  the one third-wheeling?”

 

        That night, Lila was making her way up to Ravenclaw Tower with Cass and Mina who she’d sat with at dinner because everyone else seemed to have disappeared.  Lila let out a massive yawn and then screwed up her face for a moment to fight off the headache that was starting.  Even her nap with Teddy in the Hufflepuff common room hadn’t been nearly enough to satiate her fatigue.  The two girls that shared her dormitory were chattering away happily as the trio approached the door to the common room.  Lila reached out tiredly and rapped the eagle knocker, waiting for the riddle.

        “Where do Vanished objects go?”

        Lila knew her brain was so completely fried that even if she tried to answer the question she knew it would be wrong and she wouldn’t be able to formulate a decent argument that might convince the eagle to let her in, but she wasn’t too worried because Cass looked so calm and thoughtful.

        And then Cass turned to her and Mina and dammit Lila knew that look and she did not need this right now.

        “Where  _do_  Vanished objects go?”

        “Cassidy. Cass, no.  It’s only a riddle,” Lila said desperately.

        “Yeah, but seriously, have you ever thought about it before? They must go  _somewhere_ , yeah? If you can Conjure them again later?  You can’t just be making a new object out of nothingness can you…? Wait, what are Conjured objects made of then? Seriously, why have we not thought of this before?”

        “I have so much catch up work to do, Cass, please just give the knocker an answer.”

        “I know, Lila, but just think about it. This is so fascinating! There must be some sort of study that’s been done on this.  I heard a Slytherin say that Conjured objects are different to real ones, but how are they different? Could you tell if your Conjured object was the same as the one you Vanished? If you put a charm on it and it came back with the charm or something?”

        Lila turned to Mina in desperation but the girl only gave her an apologetic grimace and turned to Cass.

        “Once I heard someone say that Vanishing charmed objects is very tricky. They were looking into it for their Curse-Breaking apprenticeship. It must be possible though, right? I’m pretty sure you can’t Conjured charmed objects from nothing, that wouldn’t make sense.”

        “Actually it might be possible,” Cass frowned in thought as Lila stood there looking between the two girls in increasing frustration and panic.  “I read a book where someone said something about Conjuring a Sneak-o-Scope and those are definitely enchanted.”

        “Guys, please-” Lila tried.

        “That sounds like bullshit to me, was it a Lockhart book?”

        “No, I’ll show you, it was an Auror’s Memoirs that I just returned to the library y this morning, so I bet they’re still there, and-”

       “That’s definitely an unreliable source,” Lila interjected tiredly.

        Mina nodded at Lila in agreement.

        “ _And-_ ” Cass turned to Lila, “I was reading a Charms book the other day that referenced a book on the specifics of Vanishing objects that had an author with the last name as the book by the Auror who was an expert in their field and a retiree from the Department of Mysteries.”

        “I need to see a source before I can believe this,” Mina said.

        “Fine, come on, I’ll show you!”

        Cass turned and hurried back down the corridor and Mina ran after her, leaving Lila standing along outside the Ravenclaw common room.  She turned back to the eagle knocker in disbelief.

        “Where do Vanished objects go?” It asked patiently.

        A wave of despair hit Lila and she crumpled to the ground at the base of the door, unable to hold back the pointless tears.  “I don’t  _know!”_ she wailed, wrapping her arms around her legs and sobbing into her sleeves.

        She stayed curled like this for a while, unable to stop crying, but all the while knowing how stupid and futile it was to cry over not being able to get into the common room.  Lila was just so done.  She couldn’t help it if everything had just decided to hit her all at once and cause her brain to fully stop functioning.

        She looked up in surprise as the door swung open and the eagle awkwardly croaked, “Nicely answered!”

        Lila scrambled to her feet and eyed the knocker warily, another sob working its way out of her throat.  “Thank you,” she mumbled.  So intense was her gratitude and disbelief that she stumbled into the common room, ignoring the few other students in there and making her way up to her dorm.  She  _had_  to get that catch up work finished.


	10. the art of making decisions

All through classes next day Lila struggled once again to not fall asleep.  Merlin!  She absolutely abhorred not being able to concentrate, it made her feel like a bloody floorboard, so little information did she remember.  It wasn’t her fault she couldn’t sleep lately… wasn’t there some kind of potion or spell that could help her sleep?  And why weren’t these things offered openly for struggling students?  They only seemed to hand them out around exams.  Thankfully, Lila had at least one friend in each class that day to constantly nudge her awake if she looked to be nodding off.

        It was lunch when Lila’s tiredness really began to get a hold of her emotions.  She constantly felt like crying (although she tried especially hard not to in front of anyone), and today she sat with her head on Jimmy’s shoulder in a desperate bid to get a quick nap before Transfiguration. 

        “Hey there Delilah,” Teddy smiled as he sat down on the other side of Lila, but she kept her head on Jimmy’s shoulder and only grunted in response.

        “Are you okay?”

        “Hush, she's napping," Ciara said, sitting down across from the three of them, "Merlin knows she needs this nap."

        "I do not understand how you seem to have so much more work than the rest of us but still only take as many classes as we do," Teddy said, "it actually astounds me."

        "Just because you never do the assignments," Lila mumbled without lifting her head or opening her eyes.

        In indignation Teddy replied, "I'll have you know I've done every single assignment we've been given this week."

        "Well, I haven't!" Lila snapped, finally sitting up straight and glaring at her plate.

        "Lila-"

        "No! You know what? Come with me." She stood and started walking out of the Great Hall.  Turning back to check that Teddy was following (which he wasn't), she stopped and gestured sharply at him, “Come!”

        Teddy glanced at Jimmy with raised eyebrows before quickly standing and following Lila out of the Great Hall and into the Entrance Hall.  "What's up?"

        "I can't do this anymore! Everyone knows I'm not coping with all this bloody schoolwork and I'm obviously not sleeping well, and all you can do is rub my nose in the fact that you do all the work and get perfect Os and you still manage to get at least eight hours sleep every night!  Edward Lupin, you are ruining my chances of becoming an Auror and I can't be your girlfriend."  Lila's voice had gradually risen throughout this proclamation until she was almost shouting by the end of it, angry tears prickling behind her eyes.  She bloody well didn't want to cry but when you're that tired crying just seems to be the default reaction for every emotion.  

        Teddy looked simultaneously shocked and crestfallen, his hair turning a dusky purple of confusion.  "Delilah- what- why?"

        "You know darn well why!" Lila muttered furiously, suddenly aware that there were people glancing at them curiously as they came and went from the Great Hall.  "You're a distraction, and the last thing I need right now."

        He grabbed her arm as she turned away, but she yanked it out of his grasp and crossed her arms furiously.  "But Lila, I can help you! We'll study together! I can come to your common room tonight and we'll-"

        "Yeah, 'cause that group studying went so well last time."

        "It's not my fault Hufflepuffs are friendly! Look, Lila, please can we talk about this when you're feeling better? You're not really in the state of mind to make decisions-"

        "I'LL MAKE DECISIONS IN WHATEVER STATE OF MIND I LIKE! Teddy I can't... do this-" she broke off due to being unable to stop the tears from welling up and overflowing any longer.  She angrily scrubbed them off her face with the backs of her hands and glared at Teddy as his expression softened. 

        "Hey, come here," he reached out and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her and softly kissing her lilac hair.  

        Lila was rigid in his arms for a moment, but the caring warmth melted her anger and she let out a sob, wrapping her own arms around Teddy and burying her face in his chest.  "I can't deal with everything..." she mumbled into his shirt between sobs.

        "Shhh, we can do it together, hey, I'm here. Shhh, let me help you."

        "How can you help me?" She pulled away from him slightly and looked up into his concerned face with her own tear-streaked one.  "I'm the only one who can take my exams," she sniffed.

        Teddy stroked her hair as he hugged her to him, comforting her with his strong presence.  "I can help you revise and test you on the things you need to memorise, that sort of thing. Look, I'll come help you after class; we can make flash cards for Charms, that kind of thing. I'm pretty sure we have Transfiguration together now, anyway."

        "Okay," Lila whispered into his shirt, nodding slowly.  "Okay."

        "I can't lose you now that you're mine," Teddy mumbled so quietly that Lila didn't catch the words, but the tone was comforting.  If she had looked up at him at that moment she would have seen his hair fading from the dusky purple into a soft pink glow that matched the gentle smile on his face.  "Okay, let’s get you to Transfiguration."

        Lila sniffed and then pulled out of Teddy’s arms and nodded, wiping her eyes.  “Is my face red?”

        “Only a little, you just look tired.  Maybe we should go ask Madam Pomfrey for a Pepper Up potion, or maybe a Wide Eye potion?”

        “No, then she’ll keep checking up on me and owl my parents. We can’t let them know what a mess I am,” she gave a bitter laugh that caused Teddy to hug her to him again and stroke her hair gently.

        “Yeah? Well, you’re my mess, sooo.”

        Lila smiled up at Teddy and sniffed again.  “Okay, let’s go to class.”

 

        Later that evening the common room was positively bursting with studying Ravenclaws.  What with exams rolling around faster than anyone anticipated, and with Christmas break smack bang in the middle of it all - just around the corner - no one was feeling quite ready for anything.  The air was almost electric with the thoughts buzzing around the room as Lila settled into her memorisation rhythm; snuggled into the corner of a sofa, surrounded by books.  Jimmy sat on the couch opposite her with Ciara, just far enough away that they couldn’t talk comfortably without disturbing others around them.  This was just perfect for Lila.  They were there if she needed to ask a question or borrow notes for something she might have missed or lost, but they weren’t going to be able to be a distraction to Lila without peeving off at least three other Ravenclaws that sat near them doing their own studying. 

        Half an hour into the study time Lila had allocated herself, the door of the common room opened to admit a triumphant looking Hufflepuff boy with bright yellow hair.   Lila looked up in surprise, the yellow was not a usual colour for the boy to sport, but seeing as he was a Hufflepuff, it seemed entirely appropriate.  She waved him over to her couch and he exchanged hushed hellos with Jimmy and Ciara before settling down next to Lila.

        “How did you get in?! Those riddles can be really hard,” Lila asked curiously.

        “Please, I may be stupid, but I’m not dumb. Plus there are at least two Ravenclaws in my ‘adopted’ family.”  He put air quotes around ‘adopted’, which Lila knew meant he was referring to the Potter-Weasley clan who were basically his family at this point, but not quite. 

        “It was an easy one, wasn’t it?” Lila smirked.  Teddy sucked at riddles, it was a bloody good job he hadn’t ended up in Ravenclaw or he’d be stuck outside that door constantly.

        Teddy sank into the sofa and mumbled, “Yeah…”

        “Well, practice makes perfect.” Lila declared, earning herself a shhh and a few glares from nearby studious Ravenclaws.

        Teddy glanced at them before continuing the conversation in a hushed whisper. “Speaking of practice, I’m going to make you those flash cards while you continue with whatever it was you were doing. Oh!”

        Lila had turned back to her books, but raised an eyebrow questioningly at Teddy as the boy sat up straight with that exclamation.

        “I almost forgot-” he produced a small rounded bottle from somewhere within his robes.  “Look what I  _procured_.”

        “You don’t have to use big words because you’re in the Ravenclaw common room,” Lila laughed softly; it was rather endearing if she was being honest with herself.  Now that she was actually getting work done she was starting to feel at least a little bit better.

        “Shh, don’t mock me. It’s a Pepper Up potion!” He grinned with such innocent happiness that Lila couldn’t help but smile back.

        She put her index finger under Teddy’s chin and pulled his face towards her own, placing a dainty kiss gently on his nose.  “Thank you, but how did you get it? Did you go to Pomfrey?”

        “Nah, I asked Professor Longbottom if he could get me some. I didn’t tell him if was for you though, so don’t worry. He had a private stash anyway, he stays up way too late looking after all those crazy plants in his office.”

        “Thank you, Teddy.” Lila said sincerely, “I think I’ll save it for tomorrow though.”

        Teddy shrugged and smiled at her again, putting the potion on the small table by the couch, next to Lila’s stack of books.  He then pulled a surprising amount of card and a pair of scissors out of a pocket in his robes and set to work on the flash cards.

        Lila was honestly a little bit astonished he even knew what flash cards were, considering, a) they were a muggle thing, and b) did he ever actually study properly?  She gave a little shrug and returned her attention to her books.

 

        A bit over an hour later, Teddy handed Lila a neat stack of flash cards just as she finished up her final essay. 

        “Hey, Lila?”

        “Yeah?” She stacked up her books on the small table and turned so she was facing Teddy on the couch.  He was using her preferred name, so he must’ve had something serious to say.

        “With Christmas coming up and all… do you- would you…?”

        Lila laughed softly and put her hands on either side of his face.  “Would I…?”

        “Do you want to spend Christmas with me and the Potter-Weasleys?” He blurted, flushing a little. 

        Lila couldn’t help it; a wide grin spread across her face.  “I’d love to," she whispered.

        Teddy watched as her face suddenly fell, his own grin turning to a look of concern.  “But…?” He prompted quietly.

        “But I’ll have to ask my parents.  They probably won’t let me with the exams coming up too.”  She sighed and flopped into the couch again.  “They never let me do anything.”

        “Okay.” Teddy was a little crestfallen, but at least he knew that Lila did actually want to spend Christmas with him, even if she wasn’t actually allowed to in the end.  “Write them, though?”

        “Of course.” Lila turned back to him.  “Yes.”

        He smiled again and lifted a hand to tuck a piece of lilac hair behind Lila’s ear.  Teddy leaned towards Lila until his forehead was touching hers and her face was blurred just a little bit.  Before he knew it their lips were pressed together and his hand was in Lila’s hair.  It was slow and gentle, but no less exciting than the very few other times they had kissed. 

        They pulled apart at the sound of gagging coming from the sofa opposite the one they were seated on.   

        “GET A ROOM!” Ciara whisper-yelled, pretending to vomit onto Jimmy’s lap.

        Jimmy was pulling a series of quite astonishing faces that Lila didn’t know it were possible to pull; “No PDA, please!” He whispered.

        “You can’t talk!” Lila laughed quietly, “you and Jack are the  _worst_  when it comes to PDA.”

        “Oi, at least Jack and I are an attractive couple!”

        “Watch yourself, Ravenclaw,” Teddy laughed a little too loudly, earning glares and plenty of shushing.  He flushed a little and apologised more quietly.  “Sorry, sorry!”

        Lila laughed silently at him for a moment before he pulled her into his arms and placed a kiss on the top of her head.

        “ACCchhhAA,” came a strangled noise of disgust from Ciara.

        “Oh hush up, Ciara! I should go now, it’s past curfew.  You need to sleep.” Teddy smiled at Lila gently.

        “I’ll go write to my parents first.”

        Teddy nodded and let go of her, making his way out of the common room.  Lila watched him go then turned back to Jimmy and Ciara who were still silently gagging at each other.  She poked her tongue out at them impetuously and then turned, making her way through the students still left in the common room and up the stairs to her dorm.  When she reached it she found a piece of parchment and her self-inking quill and she sat on the edge of her bed.  Lila decided she wasn’t going to specifically say that it was  _Teddy_  who had invited her because she thought that might not go down well, but if she just generally said she’d been invited to spend Christmas with the Potter-Weasleys, then she might just be allowed to. 

        She nodded thoughtfully, propping the parchment on her lap and starting to write. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! <3


	11. the art of being blackmailed

A distant tapping awoke Lila the next morning.  She lay in bed with her eyes squeezed shut as if that would stop the tapping from penetrating her eardrums, but, alas; it did not abate.  She dragged herself out of her bed, rubbing her eyes groggily with her knuckles.  On her way to the window Lila pulled a blanket off her bed and wrapped it around her shoulders before reaching for the handle to admit a tawny owl with a letter in its beak.

        “Couldn’t you have waited for the morning post, Ianto?” She asked grumpily, taking the letter from the owl’s beak and grudgingly stroking down the ruffled feathers on his back.  Lila tore open the envelope, at once apprehensive and excited at the familiar sight of her mother’s handwriting.

 

                 _Lila,_

_You father and I have discussed this invitation you have received, and we fear that if you accept you will let your studies slip.  It is our understanding that you must be studying over the Christmas break in order to achieve the perfect marks needed to be accepted into the Ministry’s Auror training programme._

_You know we only want what’s best for you, my love._

_If you think you can maintain your study while spending the Christmas break away, then we will allow it.  Just know that if your grades do slip, we will be refusing such a request in the future, but I am sure you won’t let us down, you’re usually so responsible._

_Love, Mum and Dad_

 

        Lila sighed heavily and tucked a strand of her lilac hair behind her ears.  She grabbed a spare piece of parchment from her trunk and hurried back over to the window, using the early morning light to write;

 

_I won’t let you down._

_Love, Lila_

 

        She folded up the parchment and sealed it, then handed it back to the patiently waiting Ianto.  “Please come in at breakfast next time.” With this she shut the window behind her owl, dumped her blanket back on her bed and went into the bathroom to shower. 

 

        “Delilaaahhhh!” Jimmy intoned in a singsong voice as he met her in the common room after her shower.  “Guess what?!”

        Lila couldn’t help but smile at her overly cheerful friend, despite it being too early in the morning to fully function as a working human being should, “what?”

        “Come on, you can do better than that. Guess!”

        “Jiiiimmmmmyyyyyyy,” she whined.

        “Deelliiiiiillllaaaaahhhhhhhh,” he shot back.  “Come on, please?”  
        “Uhhmmm, something about Jack?”

        “CLOSE ENOUGH! We have Charms with Hufflepuff!” He grabbed her hands and swung her around, “So we can both see our respective boyfriends!”

        “Right.” Lila rolled her eyes and let go of one of Jimmy’s hands, using the other one to pull him towards the door and down the stairs.  “But we have breakfast first. At which we can both see our respective boyfriends.”

        Jimmy laughed at Lila and spun her under his arm before racing down the several flights of stairs to the Great Hall. 

        “Why are you such a morning person?!” Lila called after him in mild annoyance.  "He is so lucky the common room is empty," she muttered under her breath, following him down to breakfast.

        Lila sat opposite Ciara at the Ravenclaw table as Jimmy positively bounded over to the Hufflepuff table to sit next to Jack.  Lila searched the faces at the Hufflepuff table for the familiar one of her boyfriend, but she couldn't see him anyway.

        "Do you know where Teddy is?" Lila asked Ciara.

        "Nope, sorry." Ciara popped the 'p' before biting into her toast.  

        Lila gave her friend a look before returning to her search.  "Maybe he overslept again."

        "Mmaybmmphe," Ciara managed around her mouthful.

 

        Jimmy slid into the seat beside Jack once they reached the Charms classroom after breakfast.

        “Hey,” Jack smiled as Jimmy slid his hand into Jack's, Lila sliding into the empty desk in front of them.

         “Do you know where Teddy is?” Jimmy lowered his voice in an attempt to prevent Lila from overhearing the exchange.  Alas, Lila’s hearing was much better than Jimmy’s whispering.

        “Yes, Jack,” she turned in her seat, leaning one arm over the back; “where is Teddy? Late as usual? Why was he not at breakfast?”

        Jack glanced sideways at Jimmy quickly, unsure why the Ravenclaw seemed to not want Lila to know.

        “He was- uh- serving an early morning detention for some Slytherin kid, I believe.”  Jack leaned forwards conspiratorially; “Teddy made him pay extra seeing as it was a morning one and he’s really not a morning person.”  He leaned back and laughed.

        Lila just rolled her eyes.  She didn’t really approve of Teddy’s little ‘business’, but as long as he wasn’t serving with McGonagall or Longbottom, it usually went really quite smoothly.  Besides, he really was a very quick study when it came to noticing character and mannerisms.  She’d have to warn him to be careful with morning detentions though, it might end up being a little suspicious if he was constantly late to class and the actual person supposed to be serving the detention turned up perfectly on time.

        “He’ll be here soon.” Jack smiled at Jimmy, squeezing his hand gently under their desks.

        “Alright, class!”

        But Jimmy barely heard anything the rest of the lesson, so focused was he on the sensation of Jack’s warm thumb lightly brushing up and down the top of his hand under the table, leaving a trail of heat in its wake, and before he knew it Charms was over and Jack was pushing Jimmy against the wall of a deserted corridor. 

        The two boys were determined to make the absolute most of the one free period they had together that week.  Somehow, their timetables were arranged weirdly and something had happened with the free periods, but they really didn’t mind all that much so long as they could spend the one they did have together, together.

        Jimmy had his hands in Jack’s hair and Jack had his hands firmly on Jimmy’s buttocks, their mouths locked together, tongues working in sync.

        “Merlin, you’re not meant to swallow each other.”

        The two boys broke apart and Jimmy opened his eyes regretfully to see Ciara standing there, arms crossed, leaning against the wall, watching. 

        He just grinned at his fellow Ravenclaw.  “What do you want?”

        “Have either of you floorboards seen Lila? I need her to sneak into Hogsmeade with me.”

        “She was in the library with Teddy last I checked- wait, you want her to what?!”

        But Ciara was already halfway down the corridor.

        “Ciara?!”

        “Thanks boys!” She called without looking back.

        Jimmy looked at Jack in surprised confusion, but the taller boy just raised his eyebrows and shrugged eloquently.  “She’s crazy.”

        Jimmy shook his head and tangled his hands back in Jack’s hair.  “You’re not wrong.”  He pressed his lips to Jack’s again, feeling the heat surge up his spine and tingle in his fingertips and toes.  Reluctantly, he pulled away and let his eyes trace the curve of Jack’s lips regretfully.  “We should follow her.”

        “Mmmm,” Jack tried to pull Jimmy back to him but Jimmy just laughed and pulled away, yanking on Jack’s hand as he skipped down the corridor after Ciara.

        “Come on!”

        Ciara looked back over her shoulder and started walking faster as she heard Jimmy’s laughter down the corridor behind her.  If those two ended up tagging along on this little illicit escapade then things would undoubtedly go wrong.  Ciara loved Jimmy, and Jack was certainly a good time too, but when they were together they were so unaware of their surroundings that Dumbledore’s spectre could pop in for a cup of tea and they wouldn’t even question it.

        Ciara sauntered into the library, glancing at the desk to gauge the likeliness of being told off.  There was no immediate sign she was doing anything wrong, so she made her way through the shelves and shelves of dusty old books until she came to the small table in the secluded back corner of the library where she knew Lila liked to sit.  It was away from the main section of study tables where firsties sat, always getting told off for the ridiculous amounts of noise their small bodies somehow managed to produce. 

        “Lovebirds,” Ciara deadpanned, sliding into the spare seat across from Teddy and Lila, “I require your assistance.”

        Lila rolled her eyes at Ciara, “with what?” She glanced at Teddy quickly, memorising the soft glow in his caramel eyes and the pinkish undertone that suffused his bubblegum blue hair today.

        “I’m-” Ciara paused, “ _we’re_  going to sneak into Hogsmeade.”

        Lila’s mouth dropped open slightly in comical surprise, causing Teddy to grin and Ciara to give her a nasty smirk that made Lila snap her mouth shut again.  “Why? Wait, no! We’ll get into so much trouble, plus how would we even get there?! No, Ciara, don’t be insane!”

        Ciara pouted, “this is the least you can do for me Delilah! Otherwise I might have to leak that photo from summer in second year... You are sentencing me to a Christmas  _alone_  with my  _family_  because you’re running off to spend it with  _Him_  and of course Jimmy is going to spend it with  _Jack_! What am I supposed to do?!”

        "Are you  _blackmailing_  me?" Lila asked incredulously.  "Ciara, what the-"

        “Spend what with Jack?” Came Jimmy’s voice from around the bookshelf sheltering them from the exit, effectively cutting Lila off.

        “Your life, I hope,” came Jack’s soft voice.

        Ciara gagged as the pair of boys came around the bookshelf and Jimmy perched on the edge of the table by Lila, Jack standing behind him, arms crossed, displaying those beautifully sculpted Quidditch muscles.

        “You two are  _not_  coming,” Ciara dictated.  “We would get caught immediately. Lila, however, has no choice and Teddy can come because he is a valuable asset to any criminal activity.”

        “Are you saying we are not valuable assets?” Jimmy stuck out his bottom lip like a petulant child. 

        “Are you a metamorphagus?” Ciara stared Jimmy down until he looked away, rolling his eyes.  “Didn’t think so. Now, either of you would be great on this mission, but together you are a distracted – and distracting – liability.”

        “Yes, I am very distracting,” Jimmy pretended to flex his non-existent biceps, earning an affectionate grin from Jack and an amused snort from Ciara.

        “Ciara, why do you want to sneak into Hogsmeade, anyway?” Teddy asked, causing Lila to raise one eyebrow at him.  “What?” He shrugged, “it sounds like we’re going no matter what, so we might as well learn the whole plan!”

        “Good thinking. This is why you are a valuable asset.” Ciara responded.

        “I thought I was a valuable asset because I’m a metamorphagus?”

        Ciara flapped her hand in impatient dismissal; “you can be an asset for more than one reason.  Jimmy and Jack please leave, the more you know of our mission, the more you compromise us.”

        Jimmy rolled his eyes again and stood up, “fine, Jack and I have better things to do anyway.” Lila caught the wicked grin Jimmy flashed at Jack and they left the library and it made her grin too.  However, the grin quickly slipped from her face when Ciara began outlining her plan.

        Lila leaned back in her chair pinching the bridge of her nose and squeezing her eyes shut.  “We are going to be in so much trouble.”


	12. the art of finding trouble

        “Bloody Hufflepuffs, always in the way!” Ciara hissed.

        “Oi!” Teddy retorted, “we Hufflepuffs are much more helpful than you snooty Ravenclaws!”

        “Shh! Don’t blow our cover, Lupin.”

        Teddy, Lila and Ciara crouched behind the statue of the one-eyed witch, getting exceptionally cramped while waiting for a pair of Hufflepuffs to stop snogging and move themselves around the corner and out of sight.

        “How can they even go for that long?” Lila asked with a kind of morbid fascination, “Don’t they need to breathe?”

        “You tell me, Miss Experienced.” Ciara replied.

        Lila flushed slightly and rolled her eyes, nudging Teddy, “can’t you walk past and tell them a teacher is coming or something?”

        “Oooo!” Ciara’s face broke into such an evil grin that Lila physically winced.  “Better yet, can’t you morph into McGonagall and scare the living daylights out of them?!”

        “That is a horrible idea!” Lila hissed, turning to Teddy for support.

        She was disappointed, however, as she found a grin to rival even Ciara’s painting itself across Teddy’s face. “That is a brilliant idea!”  Teddy immediately began to morph his face into that of Headmistress McGonagall.

        Lila grabbed Teddy’s sleeve and yanked the rough fabric in annoyance.  “Lupin, we are already in enough trouble as it is! Don’t you dare!”

        He just grinned at her, but the expression was particularly troubling on the face of Minerva McGonagall and Lila had to look down at the ground.

        “Oh bloody fucking Merlin.”  Lila slid down against the statue with her head in her hands.  “My parents are going to kill me. Quite literally.”

        “All’s well that ends well!” Ciara said, giving Teddy a small shove out from behind the statue. 

        Lila covered her eyes with her hands but quickly separated her fingers to peek through the gaps.  Her palms were sweaty on her face and her heart was fluttering in her chest as she listened to Ciara’s excited breathing beside her.

        “This is going to the best prank of my Hogwarts career!” She whispered.

        Lila kept her eyes on Teddy as he walked towards the Hufflepuff couple purposefully, but still managed to retort; “is it really your prank if you’re not the one executing it?”

        “Yes, it was my idea.”

        “You know what? I should get credit for giving you the idea!” Lila hissed.

        She looked at Ciara furiously, but her friend wasn’t looking at her.  Ciara was looking back at the end of the corridor that Teddy had his back to and her mouth was open, her eyes growing wider and wider with every passing second. 

        Lila looked back out from behind the statue and felt her own eyes widen.  “Oh, shit.”

        “Eloquently put.”

        Walking towards Teddy-as-McGonagall and the Hufflepuff couple was the very  _real_  Professor McGonagall.

        “I take it back, I don’t want credit for this stupid idea! Oh, Merlin, Teddy hasn’t even noticed her yet, oh God what are we going to do?!”

        “Absolutely nothing.”  Ciara put her hand on Lila’s arm, shocking her out of her panic.  “He’s had plenty of detentions in his time, a few more won’t hurt him.”

        “Mr Lupin, would you please inform me just  _what_  you think you are doing?” The real McGonagall asked coldly.

        Teddy-as-McGonagall stopped in his tracks and the Hufflepuff couple (now very confused) finally realised they should be leaving and made a run for it.  Teddy turned around ever so slowly and Lila found herself holding her breath in trepidation.

        As he turned, Teddy let his face morph back into his own usual appearance and Lila watched as a suitably ashamed expression settled itself upon his beautiful features. 

        “It was just a harmless prank, Professor,” he insisted calmly.

        “I’m sure it was. A harmless prank that just earned you a week of detentions with me." She shook her head in exasperation; "Your family really has a talent for finding trouble at every turn. I will see you in my office at 8pm, sharp. ”

        “Yes, Professor.” Teddy hung his head for a moment, but he quickly perked up as McGonagall moved to walk past him.  “May I ask, Professor, how you knew it was me?”

        “You may not ask, Mr Lupin, but seeing as you already have; you are the only metamorphagus currently at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, so unless a student has been illegally brewing Polyjuice Potion then you are the obvious conclusion. Besides,” she continued, allowing the stern disapproval to drop for a fraction of a second, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips, “you walk like a Potter.”  With that, she turned and walked down the corridor and out of sight.

        “I walk like a Potter?” Teddy muttered after her.

        “Holy Merlin's sagging-” Lila breathed, standing up and shaking out her legs, Ciara popping up beside her.

        “What did I tell you? All’s well that ends well! Not a problem!”

        “You’re not the one with yet another week’s worth of detention,” Teddy eyed her balefully and turned his narrowed eyes on Lila.  “Do I walk like the Potters?”

         Lila shrugged, “I wouldn’t know. It’s not like I’ve really had a chance to study the walk of a family not in Ravenclaw.”

        “Victoire is in Ravenclaw.”

        “Yeah, but she’s a Weasley and has a much more elegant walk than pretty much anyone ever. Come on, we have work to do.”  Ciara moved out from behind the statue and felt over its hump for a moment.

        Lila watched her skeptically until Ciara triggered some kind of switch mechanism and she lifted the top of the hump up like an oddly shaped lid. 

        “In you hop!” Ciara directed.

        “What? You want me to climb down there? What the hell, Ciara it’s pitch black! Who knows how long that drop is?!” Lila peered into the darkness of the hump in horror.

        “You’re a witch aren’t you?” Teddy chuckled, “just wave your magic wand!”

        “Lumos,” Lila muttered, eyeing Teddy reproachfully.  “You know, if we get caught this will land us so much more than a week’s worth of detentions.  I wouldn’t even be surprised if they expelled us! Oh, Merlin, we’re going to get expelled-”

        “Don’t get caught then!” Ciara said cheerfully.  “Although, you would think this castle is quite large enough that the  _real_  McGonagall should absolutely  _not_ have happened upon us while Teddy was disguised as her.”

        “Call it a sign,” Lila rolled her eyes, “alright, give me a boost.”

        Teddy knelt down at the base of the statue and cupped his hands for Lila to step on.  She felt safe in his grip and was grateful of the arm he wrapped around her waist as she hoisted herself onto the edge of the gaping hole in the statue’s back.

        “I thought all of Hogwarts’ secret tunnels were destroyed or blocked off during the Battle of Hogwarts; surely this one is no excep- ARGH!”  Lila never got to finish her sentence because Ciara had decided the only way she was going to get Lila down the hole first was to push her off the edge of the hump and into the abyss below. 

        Lila shrieked as she plunged down what felt like a concrete slide that caught at her robes and thunked against her elbows before depositing her in a collapsed heap at the bottom.  She groaned and rolled onto her back, lying there at the bottom for a moment before gathering herself and rolling over to feel about on her hands and knees in an attempt to find the wand she had dropped in the fall.

        “Ugh, where are you?” She’d heard it clatter away but the sound had echoed in the concrete tunnel and she was unsure of which direction it had rolled in.

        “Ooof!”

        Lila stifled another shriek as she heard Teddy hit the ground behind her with an exhalation of breath and a rude exclamation.  “Where are you, Lila?” He asked the darkness.

        “I’m over here, I can’t find my wand.”

        “Lumos.”

        Lila blinked at the sudden brightness like a deer caught in headlights, but she quickly decided she was unharmed and stood up to cast around for her wand.  “Stupid wooden sticks; they’re too easy to lose and break!” She huffed.

        “Wait, is that it?” Teddy pointed to a spot where the floor of the tunnel met the wall with his own lit wand, but Lila was already picking it up.

        “Nope, twig.”

       “Wait, how is there a twig down-”

        “Arghk!” Ciara cried as she landed just shy of teddy’s feet.  “Lumos!”

        “Okay,” Teddy said, “Let’s try Accio Lila’s wand!”

        It took a moment, but Lila was pleased to find her wand intact, sailing through the air towards Teddy who caught it deftly and handed it to her with a grin. 

        “Okay!” Ciara jumped to her feet, “let’s go!”

        “Ugh,” Lila groaned again.  She held up her wand in front of them in an attempt to light the tunnel at least a little bit, but it felt more like the darkness was consuming the light rather than the other way around.  Lila shivered.  The cold of the tunnel seeped into her bones and tugged at her nerves like an ocean tide slowly rising around her, reaching out icy fingers ready to drag her under.

       She reached for Teddy’s hand and was relieved at its warmth.  She moved a little closer to him, hoping to feel a little more of that warmth radiating off his large form.  Teddy gave her hand a small squeeze in reassurance and Lila let him touch ground her.

        The tunnel seemed to go on forever, the only sounds being their rough breathing and their footsteps echoing around them, creating the unpleasant illusion that they were being followed.  Despite herself Lila kept glancing over her shoulder into the darkness, but outside their pitiful pool of soft light there was only the hungry darkness.  Lila squeezed Teddy’s hand tighter and wrapped her other hand around his forearm, keeping her eyes glued to Ciara’s back.

        “How long is this tunnel?” Lila mumbled, hating herself for feeling like the darkness might reach out and grab her.

        “We must be almost- yes! I think this is it!” They came to a sudden halt as Ciara held up her wand excitedly. 

        At the end of the tunnel was a ladder resting against the wall, a wooden trapdoor waiting in the ceiling above them.


	13. the art of following through

        “Okay, Lila, here’s the Sleeping Draught.”

        “Wait, what?! I thought Teddy was going to do it because he can morph into the assistant!”

         “I can’t do everything, Delilah.” Teddy smirked at her under his infuriatingly blue hair.

         “Merlin, Lila, I thought you were smart!” Ciara hissed, shoving the small vial of Sleeping Draught into her hands. “We need Teddy to take the place of the shop assistant  _immediately,_  while you take care of the body, so  _you_  have to be the one to give her the potion!”

         “Do you have to make it sound like we’re murdering her?!”

         “Just take the potion!”

         “I did not asked to get involved in this.”

         “Too bad! Now get up that bloody ladder and give the potion to the assistant!”

         Lila slid the Sleeping Draught into the pocket of her robes and surreptitiously wiped her clammy hands down her sides.  She caught her wand between her teeth and carefully made her way up the ladder.  She looked down when she heard Teddy nervously shuffling his feet, but she quickly snapped her head back up to the ladder in front of her as her vision swayed menacingly.  Her hands slipped briefly but she quickly firmed her grip on the rungs.

         At the top of the ladder she nudged the trapdoor open a bit and grabbed her wand out of her mouth.  No sense in getting caught.  If she was actually going to do this at all, there was no way she was going to do it half-arsed.  Lila peered into the dark cellar of Honeydukes, but she could hardly make anything out except a few stacks of crates right by the trapdoor.  She directed her wand through the small gap she’d allowed and whispered: “ _Homenum Revelio_.”

         Lila checked the entire basement for signs of life: the spell quickly revealed the cellar was currently empty.  She pushed the trapdoor open fully and hoisted herself up and out of the tunnel, wand still clasped tightly between her sweaty fingers.  When she was standing in the dark cellar she took a shaky breath and closed her eyes for a moment before casting a weak  _“lumos_ ”.  The light from her wand barely illuminated three steps in front of her, but Lila felt that much safer for the pathetic pool of light.  Anyway, she decided, what was the point of lighting the whole room only to have someone stumble upon her? 

        Cautiously, Lila made her way through the cellar and up the stairs that presumably led to the main shop.

        “ _Alohamora_ ,” she whispered.  She was mildly surprised when the simple charm unlocked the door.  Shouldn’t a shop that almost exclusively catered to  _magical_  students put a more complicated locking charm on the door to their storage cellar?  Surely their stores got raided frequently enough by mischievous students to warrant something a little more powerful at least. 

        Not for the first time in her life – and very probably not the last – Lila wished she could become invisible.  The door creaked horribly as she pushed it open, but it was too late to cast a silencing charm; the damage was undoubtable done.  Lila quickly decided that acting boldly would be more successful in these circumstances than skulking around like a thief.  Which she kind of was right now.  But they didn’t know that.  Acting like you belonged automatically made you seem less suspicious to any onlookers.

        She strode out of the cellar, locking the door behind her, then moving immediately towards the small kitchenette at the back of the shop.  She brewed a mug of tea and then reached into her pocket and pulled out the small vial.  Lila topped off the mug of tea with the Sleeping Draught, grabbed the mug and walked over to the shop assistant, head up and shoulders back with faux confidence that she certainly did not feel.  She hoped no one noticed how her hand was shaking the almost overflowing mug.

        The shop assistant looked quite a bit flustered, which suited Lila’s purposes admirably.

        “Here’s your tea. I’m just going to pop on out for my lunch break now, if you don’t mind?”

        “Oh, thank you, dear! Yes, yes…” She took the mug from Lila and took a sip without actually looking up from the paperwork sprawled out across the desk in front of her.  She took another large sip before realising that something wasn’t right.  Her head jerked up suddenly and she looked up at Lila with wide eyes.  “You – what? You don’t work here! I-” And with that she keeled over right where she sat, her face smacking down into the middle of her paperwork.  Lila caught her before she slid of her chair and hit the floor.  Clearly that Sleeping Draught was a bit more potent than usual.

        Lila got a better grip under the shop assistant’s arms and carefully dragged her back over to the cellar, glancing around once to ensure no one was watching, but the shop was fairly empty; only a few customers browsing the stacked shelves.  Lila unlocked the door and pulled the poor lady into the storage area, propping her up against the wall by the door.

        “Ciara!” She hissed in the direction of the trapdoor, “all clear!”

        “You know, we really should have come up with code names… never underestimate a good codename.” Ciara’s head popped out of the trapdoor, followed by the rest of her body and an amused Teddy right behind her.

        Lila’s brow furrowed and she rolled her eyes in exasperation.  “Just get out there and do whatever the hell we’re here to do!”

        Her anger was quickly overtaken by curiosity as Teddy approached the shop assistant.  Lila had watched him morph into other people several times now, but she never seemed to lose her slightly morbid fascination.  She guessed that came from having two muggle parents who worked in food importation. 

        Teddy quickly examined the unconscious woman beside Lila and then carefully morphed his features into hers.  Ciara pulled a black kind of rock out of her pocket and slunk out of the cellar and into the shop, Teddy close behind.  At the door he turned back and gave Lila a reassuring smile, but it didn’t quite have the same effect when he was wearing someone else’s face.

        She pressed her back against the wall and sunk down next to the sleeping shop assistant and took a shaky breath.  Lila had broken more rules today – on this one little ‘escapade’ – than she had so far in her entire time at Hogwarts.  Frankly, she was quite impressed with just how long she’s managed to deter Ciara from pranks like this one.  She shook her head softly.  Gryffindor may have been the pranking house, but when Ravenclaws took it upon themselves to pull a prank, it almost always went perfectly.  Planning.  Planning was key.  Gryffindors seemed to mostly be sadly lacking in the necessary patience and perseverance required to plan and refine  a prank before diving in headfirst and inevitably getting caught of having a problem come up unaccounted for – often Peeves – for instance. 

        Lila closed her eyes and thunked her head back against the concrete wall with a sigh.  She really hoped Ciara had graphed the probability of each outcome and prepared for all most likely scenarios, but she had a sinking feeling in her gut that told her Ciara hadn’t spent nearly enough time planning this prank to prevent something from going wrong.  Anyway; ‘mice and men’, as her parents were fond of saying.

        A sudden bang from the shop jerked Lila out of her reverie.  She abruptly jumped to her feet and sparing only a glance at the still unconscious shop assistant she cautiously pulled the cellar door open.  A vile black smoke flooded into the room, causing Lila to retch, eyes watering. 

        “Ciara?!” She managed to choke out.   _Oh, Merlin_.  She really hoped this was part of the plan.

        There was some vague shrieking from the main part of the shop and Lila could hear the tinkling of the bell over the main door, indicating people were rushing out of the shop in a panic.  No witnesses, then?

        “Lila!” Ciara coughed, appearing suddenly in front of her in the doorway, ghostly in the thick black smoke.  “Get Teddy!”

        Lila spluttered, stumbling through the door half-blind as Ciara disappeared into the smoke again.  “What? Where is he?!” She called.  “Teddy?!”

        “Lila!” Came his voice to her right, hoarse from the smoke.  She felt his large hand on her arm, grounding her a bit as she fought to breathe through the smoke and her frantically beating heart.  “Come on.”

        The hand on her arm materialised into Teddy – wearing his own face again, thank Merlin – a concerned frown creasing his brow.  He dragged her through the door and back into the cellar.  Lila stumbled a bit, tripping on the shop assistant’s sprawled legs, but Teddy caught her in his solid embrace.  Lila clung to him for a moment, but it didn’t last nearly long enough. 

        In less than a heartbeat Ciara was through the door.  She slammed it shut and coughed into her sleeve dramatically.  “Okay, next time remind me that Peruvian Darkness Powder is not the best option.” She wheezed.

        “Next time?” Lila asked, trepidation encircling her heart. 

        Ciara just gave her a wicked grin and glanced down at the sleeping shop assistant.  “Smoke rises, she’ll be fine in here. It should clear in a few minutes anyway. Let’s get out of here.” She strode over to the trapdoor with such a casual air that Lila almost wanted to punch her.  Almost.  This was really not what Lila had planned for her day. 

        Reluctantly, she released her grip on Teddy and took his hand instead, allowing him to lead her over to the trapdoor and then climb down the ladder ahead of him.  She let his warmth comfort her on their long walk back through the chilly tunnel to Hogwarts, but she wasn’t entirely sure if she was shivering from the biting air. 

        Back at the castle, Lila was surprised to find that in their absence the corridors had been festooned with holly garlands and mistletoe, there was even some muggle tinsel charmed by someone to float around the ceiling.  In her mad rush to stay on top of all her homework and still spend time with her boyfriend, she’d pretty much forgotten all about Christmas.

        A gentle tug on her hand brought her to a halt in the middle of the corridor.  Lila looked up at Teddy in slight confusion, but she quickly noticed the little sprig of mistletoe blooming above their heads.  She allowed a small smile to slip onto her face as Teddy pulled her in for a kiss.  His lips against hers and his warm body against her quickly erased the frigidity from her body, her lips beginning to tingle just a little bit as Teddy parted his lips and cautiously ran his tongue along her bottom lip.  Lila smiled into their kiss.

        “Alright, are you two gonna finish any time soon?” Came Ciara’s impatient voice.

        They didn’t pull apart.  Lila couldn’t bear to break the kiss before she had to.  They’d only kissed a handful of times…

        Ciara waited a beat before continuing; “No? Okay. Well, I guess I’m off, then.”

        Lila felt Teddy smirk against her lips as they listened to Ciara’s footsteps clatter down the corridor away from them.  He pulled away slightly and smiled at Lila, smoothing a stray piece of hair back behind her ear. “That got rid of her.”

        “I really hope she doesn’t brag about what we did to anyone.” Lila looked anxiously down the corridor where Ciara had disappeared.

        “Don’t worry about it, no one will believe her anyway.”

        “Did she even take anything in the end? I couldn’t see what she was doing through all the smoke.” Lila slid her hand into Teddy’s and they started down the corridor in the direction of the Great Hall. 

        “I actually have no idea. Wait,” he turned to look at her as they walked, “did she even have a bag?”

        “No, but I know for a fact she’s done an Undetectable Extension Charm on every pocket of those robes she was wearing.” She looked up at Teddy briefly, glad to see his eyes were their familiar caramel despite his hair being a bright green at that particular moment.

        “I guess we’ll just have to ask her later.” Teddy gave a small chuckle that made Lila feel all warm and mushy on the inside.  “Have you finished packing for Christmas break?”

        Clearly the newly Christmassy interior of Hogwarts was making him think of the break they'd be spending together. 

        “Nearly,” she bit her bottom lip anxiously.  “Teddy… no, it’s dumb, don’t worry.”

        He gave her an amused smile, his eyes warm before saying, “I don’t think anything you’ve said in your entire life was dumb.”

        Lila gave him a pointed look, but she laughed, nonetheless.  “Oh, I don’t know about that, you don’t know some of the thing I said when I was little.”

        Getting her to laugh had clearly been Teddy’s aim because his hair was now a rosy pink and the smile that suffused his face had him practically glowing.  “It still probably wasn’t dumb.”

        Lila sighed, “I was going to say; what if they don’t like me?”

        “Who? The Potter/Weasley/Granger-Weasley clan?”

        “Mhmm,” she looked down and played with Teddy’s fingers nervously.

        “No, you don’t have to worry about that at all, they’ll love you! They love anything I lov-”

        Lila stopped walking and looked up at him with wide eyes as he broke off.  He’d never said those words before.

        “Anything I love.” He repeated, finishing softly, a violent blush racing up his neck and cheeks.  Even his ears went bright red.  Lila found it oddly endearing.

        She smiled up at him and found herself pulled into another kiss before she could say anything in return.  A muggle Christmas song started blaring out of the classroom to their left and they jumped apart, taken aback by the loud, cheery music.  Lila opened her mouth to say something but Teddy grabbed her hand and started walking along the corridor again, still blushing furiously.

        “Merry Christmas,” he muttered, looking at her out of the side of his eye. “Don’t say anything.”

        Lila yanked on his arm so he’d stop walking and face her.  She put her fingers under his chin to make him look up and meet her eyes, a grin blooming across her face from ear to ear. 

        All she said was: “Merry Christmas,” but it was enough. 


End file.
